oil spill (Page 6)

Bacteria & information lockdown? – Bacteria are the only hope for cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP needs to let billions of hydrocarbon-chewing microbes loose in the gulf that that’s probably what they plan to do: their reason for using over 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersants on the oil slick both above and below the surface is to break the oil into smaller droplets that the bacteria can more easily consume. Meanwhile there are scary first-person internet reports about an information lockdown in spill areas such as GrandIsle.
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Three dead sperm whales killed by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could put the small population native to the gulf in peril, and not only that, but endangered and 3 species of threatened sea turtles could face major population decimation as they breathe in toxic fumes and ingest crude oil.
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Update – According to a study of a controlled deep-water spill that was conducted in 2000, surface oil slicks may account for as little as 2% of the oil now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the oil may end up remaining in deep water, with devastating consequencesfor the ocean’s food chain.

The 2000 study challenges the estimate that around 5000 barrels of oil per day are pouring into the ocean from the site of the broken BP Deepwater rig. In June 2000, Project Deep Spill intentionally released hydrocarbons into the ocean off the coast of Norway over several 1-hour periods.
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