Scientists: Toxic organisms, oil found on Gulf floor – Dispersed oil entering critical fish habitats

[Barrett808]

John Paul says, at first, he couldn't believe his own scientific data showing toxic microscopic marine organisms in the Gulf of Mexico. He repeated the field test. A colleague did his own test. All the results came back the same: toxic.

It was the first time Paul and other University of South Florida scientists had made such a finding since they started investigating the environmental damage from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The preliminary results, the scientists believe, show that oil that has settled on the floor is contaminating small sea organisms. ...

Scientists: Toxic organisms, oil found on Gulf floor – Dispersed oil entering critical fish habitats

[ibegurpard]

1. which scientists should i believe?

the ones who are saying it's not as bad as we thought or these ones?

[G_j]

2. the ones not payed by BP

or related interests.


In this case, be wary of the optimists.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. For starters, don't believe the journalists.

The scientists are not contradicting each other as much as the media would have you believe.

[Barrett808]

3. "Dispersed" doesn't mean "disappeared"

All that mass has to go somewhere -- much (or most) will end up in the food web.

[Poboy]

4. Scientists wary of U.S. report that says only 26 percent of spilled Gulf oil left

Scientists wary of U.S. report that says only 26 percent of spilled Gulf oil left
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 9:15 PM

The Times-Picayune

Some scientists are voicing doubts about the accuracy of an Aug. 4 intergovernmental agency report asserting that just 26 percent of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil released from BP's ruptured wellhead remains to be dealt with onshore and at sea.The highly publicized report, trumpeted on the Aug. 4 front page of the New York Times and unveiled later that day by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco in a White House ceremony attended by Deepwater Horizon incident commander Thad Allen and White House energy adviser Carol Browner, was hailed as a sign of remarkable progress in the Gulf, and led many to question the severity of the spill altogether.

But the report hasn't marinated well during the past two weeks, attracting increasing criticism from scientists for its dubious conclusiveness and lack of substantiation. Written by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, the five-page report includes a pie chart that describes the fate of the oil, broken into seven categories. According to the chart, roughly one-third of the oil that gushed from the wellhead is definitely gone: recovered directly or eliminated by burning, skimming, or chemical dispersion operations.
While that represents roughly 19 percent of the oil removed from the water by response teams, the report reads as if natural processes have eliminated more than twice that amount through evaporation, dissolution or natural dispersion.


Accusations of obfuscation

A congressional investigator, who asked not to be named, said his repeated requests to NOAA for specific formulas and calculations have gone unmet. The level of obfuscation surrounding the origins of the figures, he said, would never be accepted if the report were presented for publication in an academic journal.

Kerry St. Pe, director of the Barataria Terrebone National Estuary Program, has no confidence in the figures, despite their being reported "as gospel." Federal scientists can't determine exactly how much oil has even entered the Gulf, let alone calculate with accuracy what has happened to it since, St. Pe said.


http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/scientists_wary_of_us_report_t.html

[Barrett808]

7. A picture is forming... n/t

[Poboy]

6. ttt