Deepwater Horizon oil spill contributed to high number of Gulf dolphin deaths

Date: May 20, 2015

Source: NOAA Headquarters

Summary: As part of an unusual mortality event investigation, a team of scientists has discovered that dead bottlenose dolphins stranded in the northern Gulf of Mexico since the start of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have lung and adrenal lesions consistent with petroleum product exposure according to a paper published today in the peer-reviewed online journal PLOS ONE.

These findings support those of a 2011 health assessment of live dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, a heavily oiled area during the spill which showed those resident dolphins had poor health, adrenal disease, and lung disease.

The timing, location, and nature of the detected lesions support that contaminants from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused these lesions and contributed to the high numbers of dolphin deaths within this oil spill's footprint. Increased dolphin deaths following the oil spill are part of the northern Gulf of Mexico unusual mortality event investigation.

Continued ...

Bangladesh oil spill 'threatens rare dolphins'

Bangladesh officials warn that an oil spill from a crashed tanker is threatening endangered dolphins and other wildlife in the massive Sundarbans mangrove region, branding the leak an ecological ‘catastrophe’

Thursday 11 December 2014 10.23 GMT

An oil spill from a crashed tanker is threatening endangered dolphins and other wildlife in the Sundarbans mangrove region.

Bangladesh officials have called the leak an ecological “catastrophe”.

The tanker, carrying an estimated 350,000 litres (75,000 gallons), of oil collided on Tuesday with another vessel and partly sank in the Sundarbans’ Shela river, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins.

Although officials are unsure how much oil has spilled, they warned the slick has spread to another river as well as a network of canals in the vast Sundarbans delta.

“The oil spill has spread over a 60km-long (37 mile) area in the Shela and Passur rivers,” said Amir Hossain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans.

“It’s a catastrophe for the delicate ecology of the Sundarbans. The oil spill has already blackened the shoreline, threatening trees, plankton, vast populations of small fishes and dolphins,” Hossain said.

“The symptoms of environmental damage will be visible soon, as the water quality has already been damaged,” he added.

Continued ...

Sydney oil spill will significantly affect wildlife, say anglers

Caltex says has it has ‘contained and dispersed’ the oil after a spill into Botany bay from its Kurnell refinery

Recreational fishers have warned of a significant impact upon fish and bird life in Botany bay after an oil spill in the area.

The spill originated from Caltex’s Kurnell refinery, with the company blaming heavy rain for causing a containment area to overflow. Caltex said the oil spill was small, with the Sydney Ports Corporation confirming that it had been fully contained with booms.

But anglers said they were concerned that birds and fish would have died as a result of the spill.

Malcolm Poole, chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance of NSW, said anglers were “greatly concerned” by the oil spill and took photos of the scene.

Poole said that following the spill on Monday night there was not “any sign of any action overnight” from authorities.

“When will the oil spill generate a serious combined response to clean up the mess in the bay, investigate the occurrence and cause – and then appropriately fining those responsible to the full extent of the laws, and then making sure it will not happen again in the future?” he said.

Continued

Tuna hearts 'affected by oil spill'

By Jonathan Amos

Science correspondent, BBC News, Chicago

Scientists say that tuna swimming in the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have experienced heart damage.

Lab research has demonstrated how crude oil chemicals can disrupt heart function in the fish.

The study, published in Science magazine, is part of the ongoing work to try to understand the impacts of the disaster.

The gulf is an important spawning ground for bluefin and yellowfin tuna.

Tracking studies have indicated that many of these fish would have been in the area during the 2010 disaster.

Scientists have long known that certain chemicals in crude oil – such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – can be harmful to the hearts of embryonic and developing fish.

Continued

Study links BP oil spill to dolphin deaths

US government scientists have for the first time found direct evidence of toxic exposure in the Gulf of Mexico

US government scientists have for the first time connected the BP oil disaster to dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico, in a study finding direct evidence of toxic exposure.

The study, led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found lung disease, hormonal abnormalities and other health effects among dolphins in an area heavily oiled during the BP spill.

Continued

Dead dolphins and shrimp with no eyes found after BP clean-up

Chemicals used to disperse Gulf of Mexico spill blamed for marine deaths and human illness

Hundreds of beached dolphin carcasses, shrimp with no eyes, contaminated fish, ancient corals caked in oil and some seriously unwell people are among the legacies that scientists are still uncovering in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon spill.

This week it will be three years since the first of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, in what is now considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. As the scale of the ecological disaster unfolds, BP is appearing daily in a New Orleans federal court to battle over the extent of compensation it owes to the region.

Infant dolphins were found dead at six times average rates in January and February of 2013. More than 650 dolphins have been found beached in the oil spill area since the disaster began, which is more than four times the historical average. Sea turtles were also affected, with more than 1,700 found stranded between May 2010 and November 2012 – the last date for which information is available. On average, the number stranded annually in the region is 240.

Contact with oil may also have reduced the number of juvenile bluefin tuna produced in 2010 by 20 per cent, with a potential reduction in future populations of about 4 per cent. Contamination of smaller fish also means that toxic chemicals could make their way up the food chain after scientists found the spill had affected the cellular function of killifish, a common bait fish at the base of the food chain.

Read on

Deformities in Gulf Seafood Found After BP Oil Spill

Al Jazeera just published a thoroughly disturbing report on the deformed fish and shellfish that are being pulled from the Gulf in the wake of the BP oil spill. Shrimp without eyes or even eye sockets, snapper with large pink growths, undersized and misshapen crabs--the fishermen in the Gulf that Al Jazeera talked to have never seen anything like it.

An excerpt from the report:

"Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".

Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.

"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills."

It's not incredibly surprising to see deformities in the wake of the oil spill--we knew (and know)very little about dispersants in general and about Corexit, the dispersant used by BP, in particular. A nonprofit environmental law firm called Earthjustice actually had to sue to obtain the precise formula of the material, and even then, that group claims that there is nowhere near enough data to know what effects the dispersant will have on the Gulf. According toEarthjustice's review, at least 13 of the 57 chemicals in Corexit are suspected or known to be toxic to aquatic life. Phosphorus, for example, may have helped microbes readily break down the oil, but phosphorus also happens to be toxic to fish. What's not clear is what's actually causing these deformities--is it the oil, the dispersant, or both?

Continued:  http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-04/shocking-deformities-gulf-seafood-found-after-bp-oil-spill

Some Gulf Dolphins Severely Ill After Gulf Oil Spill

ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2012) — Bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, are showing signs of severe ill health, according to NOAA marine mammal biologists and their local, state, federal and other research partners.

Barataria Bay, located in the northern Gulf of Mexico, received heavy and prolonged exposure to oil during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Based on comprehensive physicals of 32 live dolphins from Barataria Bay in the summer of 2011, preliminary results show that many of the dolphins in the study are underweight, anemic, have low blood sugar and/or some symptoms of liver and lung disease. Nearly half also have abnormally low levels of the hormones that help with stress response, metabolism and immune function.

Researchers fear that some of the study dolphins are in such poor health that they will not survive. One of these dolphins, which was last observed and studied in late 2011, was found dead in January 2012.

Read more:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326133633.htm

Quake claims more victims as rare birds die

By Jeff Hampton

The Christchurch earthquakes have claimed more victims after thousands of birds have died of a disease that has gripped wetlands around the city.

The number of birds affected is more than died in the Rena oil spill, and rare species such as the royal spoonbill are among the worst hit.

Tests are still being done but it is suspected a disease called avian botulism is responsible for the deaths and the problem is being blamed on the earthquakes which badly damaged the sewerage systems in Christchurch's east.

And now the sewage levels have risen in the wetlands in Christchurch's east where the birds live, and also in the nearby council oxidation ponds.

Among those species hardest hit are the paradise shelduck, of which more than 1400 have died totaling 85 percent of the population there.

Half the mallards that live there have also died as well as smaller numbers of the royal spoon bill and pukeko.

 “They're nationally important wetlands so perhaps they waited quite a long time before stepping in to do something about it,” says fish and game officer, Brian Ross.

Removing the dead bodies of the birds is one way to reduce the casualties, as birds feed on maggots that carry the disease, and the Christchurch City Council says it is finding fewer dead birds and hopes the number if deaths is in decline.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Quake-claims-more-victims-as-rare-birds-die/tabid/1160/articleID/244229/Default.aspx 

Sunken ship oil spill leaves endangered species at risk

An emergency plan has been activated to respond to a sunken ship that is spilling oil and phosphate off the coast of Christmas Island, creating a potential environmental disaster.

Two pollution experts and a salvage expert are due to arrive on the island today to assist a marine pollution response expert and a marine surveyor who arrived yesterday but were unable to begin work due to poor weather.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority this morning activated the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances.

A shore-line cleanup is expected to start today, although it is not yet known when authorities will be able to begin retracting oil and phosphate from the ocean.

The island's Emergency Management Committee also is monitoring supplies of food and aviation fuel on the island, which is presently adequate but at risk of running low because poor weather is preventing some aircraft from landing and the sunken ship is blocking other cargo vessels from docking at the port.

Environmentalists claim the incident, which has put a number of endangered species at further risk, was a disaster waiting to happen.

Continued plus video and pictures here:: http://www.watoday.com.au/environment/conservation/sunken-ship-oil-spill-leaves-endangered-species-at-risk-20120109-1prqr.html#ixzz1j9fzF6HA

New spill emergency as grounded ship breaks up off New Zealand

WELLINGTON: Ships are being warned to watch out for containers and debris in the water, and oil response teams are readying to clean up beaches off New Zealand's Tauranga coast after the grounded container ship Rena broke up in heavy seas yesterday.

The Rena is now in two parts 20 metres to 30 metres apart on Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty where it foundered last October. At least 23 containers - but perhaps as many as 30 - have fallen off and are floating or partly submerged, the Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager, David Billington, said.

''While the two sections of the Rena currently remain on the reef, there's no question the ship is badly damaged, with the severe movement breaking off many of the hatch covers and releasing containers from the holds,'' Mr Billington said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/new-spill-emergency-as-grounded-ship-breaks-up-off-new-zealand-20120108-1pq5h.html#ixzz1iyee9QSt

Oil spill - Nigeria coast

Nigeria on alert as Shell announces worst oil spill in a decade

Nigerian coastal and fishing communities were on Thursday put on alert after Shell admitted to an oil spill that is likely to be the worst in the area for a decade, according to government officials..


The company said up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday while it was transferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta.

All production from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day, was last night suspended. "Early indications show that less than 40,000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running," said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.

Satellite pictures obtained by independent monitors Skytruth suggested that the spill was 70km-long and was spread over 923 square kilometers (356 sq miles).

But a leading Nigerian human rights group said Shell's figures about the quantity of oil spilled or the clean-up could not be relied on. "Shell says 40,000 barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them because past incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts and impacts of its carelessness," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, based in Lagos.

"We are alerting fisher folks and coastal communities to be on the look out. It just adds to the list of Shell's environmental atrocities in the Niger delta."

The spill, one of the worst off the coast of Nigeria in 10 years, is particularly embarrassing for Shell, coming only four months after a major UN study said it could take Shell and other oil companies 30 years and $1bn to clean spills in Ogoniland, one small part of the oil-rich delta. The company also admitted responsibility in August for two major spills in the Bodo region of the delta that took place in 2008, but has yet to pay compensation.

Shell, which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, claims that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure. But this is disputed by communities.

Yesterday Shell said it had also closed a Gulf of Mexico deep drilling operation after spilling 319 barrels of contaminated fluids.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/22/nigerian-shell-oil-spill

Bay of Plenty oil disaster: Rare birds dying in their hundreds

‘It is really shocking - they don't look like birds' October 2011: Forest & Bird's Seabird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird is used to seeing petrels and shearwaters skimming over the waves at sea, rather than having to identify their dead bodies encased in black tar-like lumps of oil.

Karen has been working in conservation for about 25 years and has never before been involved in a similar operation to New Zealand's Bay of Plenty oil spill disaster.

Since the disaster unfolded, some of her work has been at the Oiled Wildlife Response Centre in Mt Maunganui, identifying dead birds that have been washed ashore in the Bay of Plenty .

‘You find half a dozen stuck together in a tar-like mess'‘When you start doing this work, it is really shocking, they don't look like birds, they are totally covered in oil.

‘They are brought into the centre in bags and you might find half a dozen stuck together in a tar-like mess.'

But Karen realises the identification work she and other scientists have been doing is essential to try to gauge the impact of the Rena oil spill and its likely long-term effects.

‘From a conservation point of view, it is important to have an idea of how many birds of a particular species died, especially for some of the more endangered ones,' she said.

The impact will be felt for several years‘We know where the breeding colonies are, so it will be important to check the colonies of some of the worst affected species.'

The impact of the oil spill is likely to be felt well into the future.

‘Many birds from the species that are breeding locally will lose this breeding season and there is the potential to lose next season as well, because some surviving birds are likely to remain in poor health or have damaged breeding ability.'

The dead birds brought into the Oiled Wildlife Response Centre are the tip of the iceberg. Most of the birds that got covered in oil had probably sunk, disappearing from sight for ever, she said.

Many birds are drowned, others die of coldSo far more than 900 dead birds had been identified, comprising 23 species. These included 458 diving petrels, 198 fluttering shearwaters, 92 Buller's shearwaters, 38 white-faced storm petrels and 20 little blue penguins.

Many are likely to have died by drowning, while others probably were killed by cold after the protective waterproof coating on their feathers was stripped away by the fuel oil.

Among the victims of the spill, there have been some surprises. The species have included mottled petrels, blue petrels and Antarctic prions, which are rarely found in the Bay of Plenty area.

The response centre is treating about 100 live birds and looking after three penguin chicks and three seals. There are also 13 unharmed New Zealand dotterels being held in a temporary aviary after being taken off their beaches after the oil pollution spread east along the Bay of Plenty coast. New Zealand dotterels are endangered, with only 1,500 birds known to exist. Some of their main habitats are found along the Bay of Plenty coast.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rena-birds.html

New Zealand oil spill threatening wildlife

Volunteers comb Bay of Plenty coast for oil-spill victims
October 2011. Around 70 volunteers including Forest & Bird members were searching the Bay of Plenty coastline today for injured birds as the oil spill worsened from the grounded container ship the Rena, Forest & Bird said.

Volunteers were combing beaches in the western Bay of Plenty as news came of a major new breach in the fuel tanks of the Rena, which ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off the coast from Tauranga last Wednesday.

"We are faced with a potential disaster along our coastline and many bird species are currently breeding. The news that the oil spill is getting much worse is a huge worry," Forest & Bird's Tauranga-based Central North Island Field Officer Al Fleming said.

"Volunteers are out today searching along the coast and on Matakana and Motiti Islands. Conditions have been unfavourable for trying to recover birds at sea today due to 2.5 metre swells and strong winds. It is unsafe to be out on the water," he said.

Breeding colonies
There are estimated to be 10,000 grey-faced petrels, thousands of diving petrels, white-faced storm petrels and fluttering shearwaters breeding on nearby islands, including colonies on islands off the Coromandel Peninsula and feeding in the Bay of Plenty.

Gannets & Blue penguins
A colony of several thousand gannets is on White Island and around 200 to 300 little blue penguins are estimated to be living along the coast in the vicinity of the oil spill. By the end of yesterday, seven little blue penguins and two pied shags had been rehabilitated after being fouled by oil and washed ashore.

Petrels and shearwaters
It is so far unclear if seabirds such as diving petrels and shearwaters have been badly affected because they do not come ashore on the mainland. Diving petrels are currently nursing small chicks and fluttering shearwaters are sitting on eggs. These seabirds breed in burrows so any birds with oil on their feathers could carry that oil into their nests and harm their chicks as well. If the parent birds have swallowed oil, both they and any chicks they feed could be killed.

Dotterels, Oystercatchers and terns
Shorebirds such as New Zealand dotterels, oystercatchers and white-fronted terns are starting to nest on sandy beaches just above the high tide mark. Spring tides, storm surges and low pressure systems could all combine to bring the oil higher up the beach and smother eggs and chicks.

Godwits & knots
Migratory birds such as the godwits and red knots are returning to New Zealand from the northern hemisphere and arriving in Tauranga and other harbours and estuaries along the Bay of Plenty coast.

Fur seals
Fur seals are currently moulting ashore on headlands, islands, and beaches throughout the region. Islands and rocky headlands are also home to mussels, crabs, and skinks.

Wha;es and dolphins
Whales and dolphins are in the area and a blue whale and a calf were seen in the vicinity of Astrolabe Reef a week ago. Filter-feeding whales are at risk from sticky oil clinging to their baleen plates as they feed.

Marine life
The effect on finfish, shellfish, crustaceans, filter feeders and other sea floor life could
be disastrous.

"Without quick action, the oil will blanket our filter feeding marine life which are not only important water filters but also crucial in the diets of many animals. Eventually the oil will accumulate throughout the food web," Al Fleming said.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/new-zealand-oil.html

Nesting turtles give clues on oil spill's impact (Via Herp Digest)

Nesting turtles give clues on oil spill's impact

June 01, 201, / Associated Press

PADRE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE, TEXAS - Nearly hidden by brownish sand, the Kemps ridley sea turtle digging furiously with her back flippers as she carved out a flask-shaped hole to lay her eggs wasn't aware of the excitement she was generating among the scientists, volunteers and beach-goers watching from a distance.

They included Donna Shaver, who has been working for more than two decades to save the endangered reptiles. Each spring, she counts their nests and collects the eggs for safe incubation before releasing the turtles' tiny offspring into the sea. Shaver knows this year that each nest she spots has added significance: the turtle that created it survived the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

While scientists in several states are studying the effects of the oil spill on loggerhead and other sea turtles, the Kemps ridley have been of particular concern. The Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, 2010 happened when they typically would have been in the area. Most of the 456 visibly oiled turtles rescued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year were Kemps ridleys.

At the peak of nesting season, their numbers looked good. As of May 24, 155 Kemps ridley nests had been spotted on Texas shores - more than in all of last year and more than had been counted by that day in 2009 and 2008. The same is true for some other sea turtle species, although they have just started to nest so it might be too early to have confidence in those numbers.

And because sea turtles don't reach reproductive age for at least a decade, the full effects of the oi spill might not be known for years.

"There is fear that some of the turtles that took the year off from nesting or after the turtles were done nesting during the 2010 year, that they entered the waters where the oil had been present," said Shaver, explaining that the reptiles often forage off the hard-hit Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi coasts before or after nesting along the Texas Gulf Coast.

"There is concern that perhaps those turtles have been impacted from the oil and could then have problems with their reproduction," she added.

The nesting season has long been used to estimate the size of sea turtle populations, and recovery plans for species are based on numbers tallied when females come ashore to lay their eggs. The goal for the Kemps ridleys is to have 10,000 nesters a season by 2020. At that point, the smallest and most endangered sea turtle, could be upgraded to threatened.

Shaver and her volunteers have patrolled the Texas beaches since 1980, driving SUVs and all-terrain vehicles through heat and humidity to collect turtle eggs in plastic foam boxes and bring them to the National Park Service's lab at Padre Island National Seashore. When hatching begins, Shaver sleeps on a cot in her office, caring for the tiny turtles as though they were her babies, making sure to release them into the sea at exactly the right moment.

The turtles' population has long been on the path to recovery. Monitored incubation protects the eggs from coyotes, raccoons, fire ants, vultures and other predators, and netting covering the silver-dollar-sized hatchlings as they make their way from the beach to the water keeps them safe from birds. Only after they reach the water are the tiny turtles left to contend with the elements on their own.

The program has been so successful, some believed the 2020 goal could be reached early.
And so, the oil spill and its potential effects have been even more heart-wrenching. Shaver worries a severe drought that has dried Texas' sand and made turtle tracks disappear quickly will make it more difficult for her and her helpers to find and protect this year's eggs. She thinks about whether oil contamination may decrease survival rates for the hatchlings.

To get an idea of what may come, scientists are collecting extra information this year. Along with counting nests, they're gathering blood from nesting females and tissue samples from dead embryos and sampling hatchlings to see whether oil contamination is being passed from mother to offspring. Toxicologists and contaminant experts will help biologists analyze the information.
Scientists also are keeping tabs on the turtles' habitat, noting that if the crabs or herring they consume are irreparably harmed by the oil, it will in turn hurt the turtles.

Blair Witherington, a marine biologist and sea turtle expert with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Florida, noted such effects are sometimes so subtle that they go undetected for years. In the Chesapeake Bay, for example, the horseshoe crab population has been so severely depleted that loggerhead turtles now eat fish dumped overboard by shrimp trawlers and other fishing boats - a diet biologists believe is less nutritious and slowing growth, he said.

"We don't know though what the long-term impact of the oil will be," Witherington said.
While scientists are collecting information on nesting turtles, they said it's difficult to assess the total population because the animals are difficult to track at sea and some of them, such as juveniles, rarely come ashore.

"It takes 20 years for them to reach sexual maturity. It may take that long to determine whether the population has been affected," said Roger Zimmerman, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory in Galveston. "Unfortunately, future scientists may be making those determinations."

The oil-covered turtles found last year were cleaned and rehabilitated. A group of some 30 young ones was released off a boat in late May in an area about 50 nautical miles south of Venice, La. - right around where they were found swimming in oil, Witherington said. Others are still being cared for.

Andre Landry, director of the Sea Turtle and Fisheries Ecology Research Lab at Texas A&M in Galveston, worries about the juveniles he knows were foraging, living and playing in Grand Isle, La., just as oil was washing ashore.

Their fate has yet to be determined - or researched.

"It's a void," Landry said.

Louisiana, Florida Residents Differ on Views of Long-Term Effects of Oil Spill (Via Herp Digest)

Louisiana, Florida Residents Differ on Views of Long-Term Effects of Oil Spill
ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2011) -

One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on the Gulf Coast, new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire shows that despite the roughly equivalent economic compensation, Louisiana and Florida residents differ in perceptions about the current and long-term effects of the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history.

"Louisiana residents were more likely than Floridians to say their family suffered major economic setbacks because of the spill, to expect compensation by BP, and plan to leave the region as a result of the spill. Louisianans also were more likely to think their state and local governments were doing an excellent job responding to the spill and to trust newspapers as a source of information regarding the spill," said Jessica Ulrich, a doctoral student in sociology at UNH and research assistant at the Carsey Institute.

The research is part of the Carsey Institute's Community and Environment in Rural America (CERA) initiative. Since 2007, Carsey Institute researchers have conducted nearly 19,000 telephone surveys with randomly selected adult Americans (age 18 and above) from 12 diverse rural locations.
Carsey researchers surveyed 2,023 residents of the Gulf Coast following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010. During the late summer, while oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, researchers conducted telephone interviews with 1,017 residents of Louisiana's Plaquemines and Terrebonne parishes and 1,006 residents of Florida's Bay, Gulf, and Franklin counties.
Respondents were asked how they perceived the oil spill to be affecting their families, communities, and the environment, their levels of trust in sources of information about the spill, and whether they perceived institutional responses to the spill as effective.

The key findings show:

Nearly one-half of all Gulf Coast residents (48 percent) perceived damage to the environment and wildlife as the most serious result of the oil spill.

Perceptions regarding the impact of the spill reflect the economic differences in the two states --
Floridians are most concerned about effects on tourism and Louisianans on the fishing and oil industries.

The majority of Gulf Coast residents thought that the economy, fishing industry, beaches, and wildlife would recover within a few years after the spill.

Gulf Coast residents had little faith in BP to rectify the situation after the oil spill. Fifty-nine percent did not trust the information BP provided about the spill, and 69 percent thought BP was doing a poor or fair job responding effectively to the spill.

Although more than one-half of the respondents from both states experienced either major or minor economic effects from the Gulf oil spill, only 16 percent of Floridians and 18 percent of Louisianans have been compensated or expect that BP will compensate them for the losses.

Louisianans were more than twice as likely as Floridians to think that their state and local governments were doing an excellent job responding to the spill. Approximately three-fourths (77 percent) of Gulf Coast residents thought that the federal government was doing a poor or fair job responding.

Nine out of 10 Gulf Coast residents plan to remain in the region despite the economic and environmental impacts of the spill. Those planning to move because of the spill are more likely to be Louisianans than Floridians.

"CERA surveys, such as the one conducted in the Gulf in the wake of the BP spill, can gather important subjective information about perceptions of changes occurring in rural America. The findings can be utilized by local leaders, policy makers, and disaster response teams to help foster healthy and sustainable communities that can rebound from -- and perhaps prevent -- even large-scale disasters like the BP oil spill," Ulrich said.

BP oil spill: The environmental impact one year on

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people and resulted in 4.9m barrels of oil being discharged, threatening marine life and hundreds of miles of coastline. Yet, one year on, what environmental impact did one of world's largest accidental oil spills have on the region's wildlife and habitats, and has it been as bad as it was feared at the time?

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists have warned that it is too soon to attempt to offer a considered assessment on what impact the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest of its kind, has had on the Gulf of Mexico's wildlife.

Scientists have warned that it is too soon to attempt to offer a considered assessment on what impact the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest of its kind, has had on the Gulf of Mexico's wildlife.

In short, they said, nature did not work in such a way that the full picture will present itself within just one year.

Also, they added, more data needed to be gathered in the months and years ahead to gauge the full extent of the incident, which covered such a vast area.

Dr Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) - one of the federal agencies leading the clean-up operation - said there were reasons to be optimistic.

In an interview with the AP news agency, she said that the health of the Gulf is "much better than people feared", but the jury was out about what the end result would be.

"It's premature to conclude that things are good. There are surprises coming up - we're finding dead baby dolphins," she observed.

Researchers and conservation groups said it was difficult to access information being gathered as part of an investigation by a federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process.

The NRDA is a formal framework in which government agencies look at the damage caused by the spill to natural resources and services - such as fisheries, wetlands, protected species, agricultural land - and calculate how much it would cost to repair the "injuries".

"What we know is very sketchy," said Claude Gascon, chief science officer for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

"We have tried, and many others have tried, and it is almost impossible to get any idea what that group of agencies and researchers are actually finding.

"The simple reason for that is that there is going to be so much potential litigation in terms of settlements etc, " Dr Gascon told BBC News.

"So it is very difficult to know at the moment, the scale of the impact has been and will be in the future.

"All of us, including conservation organisations, professionals and academics, are keenly awaiting whatever the federal process will release into the public domain."

There was also agreement that it was too soon for long-term impacts to manifest themselves, such as disruptions to ecosystems' food chains.

This is why it was important for the data collection currently being carried out by the NRDA to continue, even if there was an out-of-court settlement, said Stan Senner, director of conservation science for Ocean Conservancy.

"It is too soon to draw any conclusions about impacts, especially within the marine environment," he told BBC News. "We certainly cannot gauge long-term effects just 12 months after the spill.

"For example, there were things like the massive use of dispersants, which was unprecedented. And because the well was so far offshore (50 miles), there were undoubtedly many, many impacts that were out of sight and we may never have the capacity to work out what really happened.

"Right now, there are far more questions than answers."

Understanding risks

Referring to the NRDA, Dr Senner said: "If the process runs its full course, it could take several years, may be more, to go through the damage assessment studies, then develop a restoration plan and present a claim for the cost of restoration to the responsible parties."

"All of us, including conservation organisations, professionals and academics, are keenly awaiting whatever the federal process will release into the public domain."

There was also agreement that it was too soon for long-term impacts to manifest themselves, such as disruptions to ecosystems' food chains.

This is why it was important for the data collection currently being carried out by the NRDA to continue, even if there was an out-of-court settlement, said Stan Senner, director of conservation science for Ocean Conservancy.

"It is too soon to draw any conclusions about impacts, especially within the marine environment," he told BBC News. "We certainly cannot gauge long-term effects just 12 months after the spill.

"For example, there were things like the massive use of dispersants, which was unprecedented. And because the well was so far offshore (50 miles), there were undoubtedly many, many impacts that were out of sight and we may never have the capacity to work out what really happened.

"Right now, there are far more questions than answers."

Understanding risks

Referring to the NRDA, Dr Senner said: "If the process runs its full course, it could take several years, may be more, to go through the damage assessment studies, then develop a restoration plan and present a claim for the cost of restoration to the responsible parties."

See more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13123036
(Via Dawn Holloway)

BP Spill Fine May Undercount Dead Turtles, Birds, Group Says (Via HerpDigest)

BP Spill Fine May Undercount Dead Turtles, Birds, Group Says

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Apr 12, 2011

BP Plc (BP/)'s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico killed or sickened as many as 200 times the number of animals estimated by the government, an undercount that could limit the company's spill-related fines, an advocacy group said.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, Arizona, said in a study released today it found five times as many sea turtles, 10 times as many birds and 200 times more marine mammals were injured or died than official estimates. BP faces civil penalties based, in part, on the number of wildlife and fish killed or harmed by more than 4.1 million barrels of crude that poured into the Gulf last year.

The government's counts haven't been updated to reflect the dozens of bird, turtle and dolphin carcasses that are washing ashore this spring, Tierra Curry, a biologist with the center, said in today's report. The group added those casualties to the official tallies, then multiplied those numbers "by accepted scientific multiplication factors" to reach what it calls the "true mortality counts," she said.

"The numbers of animals injured by the Gulf oil spill are staggering," Curry said. "The government's official count represents a small fraction of the total animals harmed by this disastrous spill."

U.S. tallies released in mid-February counted wildlife harmed by the spill to include 1,146 sea turtles, 8,209 birds, and 128 dolphins and whales Curry said, citing government data.

By the center's estimate, the spill caused harm or death to about 6,165 sea turtles, 82,000 birds of 102 species and as many as 25,900 marine mammals, including four species of dolphins and whales.

Separate Studies

Scientists working for environmental groups and government agencies have been conducting separate studies to estimate the spill's impact on Gulf wildlife, including fish and shrimp populations. The studies rely on multipliers, as scientists say exact counts of killed or sickened animals are impossible, given that the majority of carcasses sink into the ocean, rot unseen in marsh grasses or are consumed after death by predators, according to Curry.

The center has filed a citizen's suit against London-based BP for Clean Water Act violations. It has also sued the Interior Department over offshore drilling policies' impact on wildlife. Both lawsuits are pending along with hundreds of cases against BP and other companies involved in the oil spill, which are consolidated in New Orleans federal court.

"The Center for Biological Diversity's is an independent study,'' Wyn Hornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. "The government's investigation and assessment of damages to natural resources and wildlife is ongoing.'' He declined to comment further..

Just a little guy: Baby turtles, offspring of survivors of the oil spill in the Kalamazoo River, hatch (Via HerpDigest)

Just a little guy: Baby turtles, offspring of survivors of the oil spill in the Kalamazoo River, hatch

Published: Saturday, April 02, 2011, 6:00 AM Updated: Saturday, April 02, 2011, 3:18 PM

Kalamazoo Gazette

MARSHALL - Robert Doherty slowly lifts the cover on a plastic tray and carefully reaches into a small compartment, pinching a small miracle.

Between his thumb and index finger a 1-day-old box turtle hatchling stills itself, a yellow egg sac still attached to the underside of its inch-long body.

Here, in a section of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center set up last summer in Marshall in the wake of the Enbridge Energy Partners LP oil spill, a makeshift neonatal unit has been established to care for the first generation of turtles to be born from parents affected by the spill.

And as much as the Kalamazoo River has a long way to go before it's back to its pre-spill state, these births mark an example of the resilience of the river's wildlife, a metaphor for the rebirth of the waterway after one of the worst oil spills in Midwest history.

From ducks to swans to muskrats and other species, nearly 3,000 animals that were captured last summer and fall, a vast majority having come in contact with the heavy crude oil that leaked from an Enbridge pipeline near Marshall.

But turtles took the brunt of the environmental tragedy, with community members, wildlife officials and others collecting about 2,700 of them, by far the most of all the animals captured. Of that total, about 2,100 were released back into the wild last fall after they were cleaned with, of all things, mayonnaise, which breaks down petrochemicals.

Of the turtles captured, only 10 died.

Doherty, a senior scientist and ecologist with Stantec Consulting, a multi-service engineering and environmental firm, said he believes it was the largest-ever freshwater turtle rescue operation. "The degree to which the community was involved was amazing," he said. "These hatchlings really are small miracles. They're a sign that the river is coming back."

Those turtles that were not released took refuge at the rehabilitation center for the winter. Ninety-four, 400-gallon tubs sit in a large warehouse area at the center. The sound of swirling water fills the room. At first look, the room looks like some sort of decontamination site, with each tub encircled by a white shower curtain (officials don't want the turtles getting used to seeing humans) and the rush of chilly filtered air overhead.

But behind the curtains, the survivors of the spill emerge in their artificial - but homey - habitat, complete with logs and rocks and infrared lamps to keep the cold-blooded turtles warm. In one tub, three small box turtles that had been warming themselves on a log beneath the lamp jump into the water with three small plops. In another, a 40-year-old turtle slowly extends his head from his sheath of neck skin and turns his eyes toward Doherty as if to say hello.

"We want to give them the best environment possible," Doherty said. "They deserve it." Later this month or in early May, the turtles will be released back into the wild, Doherty said. The exact location of where each turtle was collected was plotted with GPS technology, so that when they go home, they arrive at a place that's familiar.

"To be able to put these turtles back just feels really good," said Kevin O'Connor, public information officer for Enbridge.

In a dark corner of the basement of the center, beneath the lids of large Tupperware plastic bins, more miracles are occurring.

Doherty lifts the lid on one bin. Inside, a box turtle was making its slow exit from an egg. After incubating for about 50 days, it takes a turtle hatchling almost three days to fully emerge - exhausted - from the tiny egg. "Pretty neat, huh?," Doherty said. "Another miracle."

Florida Sea Turtles and The Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (Via Herp Digest)

Florida Sea Turtles and The Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Submitted by AMANDA BRYANT, SCCF Sea Turtle Coordinator
From CaptivaSanibel.Com 2/22/11

This year's sea turtle nesting season will begin on May 1, with Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation staff and volunteers gearing up to cover island beaches.

Last year, many of us spent our spring and summer watching in horror as the Deepwater Horizon Oil rig exploded and the well it serviced pumped barrels upon barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

From April 20 until the well was capped in July, sea turtles were center stage as a poster animal for the disaster. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was responsible for handling the impacts on sea turtles along the Florida shoreline.

Efforts to protect sea turtles began almost immediately. These efforts included on-the-water search and rescue, documentation and collection of sea turtles stranded on or near to shore, nesting beach protection and observation during cleanup activities.

Approximately 450 sea turtles were rescued at sea, all but five alive. Less than one percent of these turtles died during rehabilitation. Releases of rehabilitated turtles into oil-free waters began as soon as the well was capped. To date, all have been released, with the exception of 40 sea turtles that are still receiving care.

On the beaches of the panhandle, Florida's only oiled beaches, emerging hatchlings faced almost certain death. The decision was made to relocate nests at 47-49 days of incubation (about one week before they would hatch) and release the hatchlings on the eastern coast of the state.

Eggs from 274 nests were carefully dug up and removed from the nest. They were placed in coolers with damp sand from the nest and transported near Cape Canaveral. The FedEx trucks used to move the eggs were temperature controlled, air-cushioned and equipped with special pallets to hold the coolers in place.

Every effort was made to reduce or eliminate unnecessarily jarring. At this stage in development, eggs are very vulnerable to movement, which can result in the death of the hatchling.

The coolers were kept in a temperature controlled facility and monitored until the nests hatched. Hatchlings were then released at night on nearby beaches.

In all, this massive undertaking unearthed and relocated 28,568 eggs and released 14,796 hatchlings. The hatch success (percentage of eggs that hatch out of the total number of eggs) for relocated nests matched that of nests left to hatch without assistance.

(Bryant recently attended the Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holders Annual Meeting, where these figures were released.)