Massive fish kill on Gulf side of Grand Isle, LA

Posted on August 6, 2010 | 15 Comments

Louisiana Bucket Brigade has verified a report  here of over a hundred thousand fish dead on the Gulf side of Grand Isle on August 5th. There is a strange sheen described on the water in the area, and the media is absent.

“Why do animals act like they know about the earth’s problems and most humans act like they know nothing?”

—Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacya

Update:

Thanks to catwoods for this video. It shows what appears to be dispersed oil in Barataria Bay that is easily stirred up from the bottom. “It’s de-Corexitizing the oil,” is a comment made to describe what is happening.

Also I found this:

Oil Spill Information Meeting
June 15, 2010

If you have a chance, listen to the video. There is a presentation by Dr. Larry Cahoon, Professor of Biology and Marine Biology, UNCW. He explains why the Macondo well blowout differs from ALL previous oil spills and runaway wells, including Ixtoc I and the Santa Barbara spill. All of the previous events were essentially ocean surface events. The deep water nature of the Macondo well blowout combined with the unprecedented usage of dispersant chemicals has made it impossible to predict the impact of this event ecologically. Dr. Cahoon does not rule out a catastrophe to the northern Gulf of Mexico. He says we will not know the true impact for years.

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15 Responses to Massive fish kill on Gulf side of Grand Isle, LA

  1. catwoods | August 6, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Reply

    From the BPOilslick Blogspot, “Mass Fish Kill in Fourchon, Louisiana” by Drew Wheelan of the American Birding Association. Posted August 5th, 2010:

    http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/2010/08/mass-fish-kill-in-fourchon-louisiana.html

    From YouTube, “Northeast Barataria Bay Oil July 31_2010. MP4″, by “nativeo1″ Posted Aug. 1, 2010, recorded July 31, 2010:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly7_nVzNZp0&feature=related

    • TheDailyBite | August 6, 2010 at 1:28 pm |

      Thanks, catwoods. BPOilslick is a wonderful on the scene citizen journalist resource.

  2. catwoods | August 8, 2010 at 11:34 am | Reply

    This is the YouTube video, also by native01, that actually goes with the title, “Northeast Barataria Bay Oil”:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9Atr6fmhE&feature=related

    I had the two titles mixed up before, oops.

    • TheDailyBite | August 8, 2010 at 12:48 pm |

      Hope people watch both videos. The first is “Oil sunk to the bottom of Barataria Bay” and is about oil getting stirred back up to the surface. Some described it as being “de-Corexitized.” The second video was shot July 31st and shows thick oil slicks and what I think are boats employed by BP just whizzing by.

      Twitter has a couple of streams, #BP and #oilspill where you can post things like this. BP has a lot more work to do!

  3. Pingback: Where do we go from here? |

  5. catwoods | August 10, 2010 at 10:06 am | Reply

    I can’t even stand to think about the idea of more drilling in that area…

    This time the oil showed up in a Mississippi marsh:

    http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/oil_penetrates_pristine_missis.html

    • TheDailyBite | August 10, 2010 at 1:24 pm |

      That is especially tragic to read about since that area is National Park system marsh, and the underwater oil creeping in unnoticed is a sinister thing. I thought the quote by the biologist was a bit dispassionate as far as viewing the marsh’s ordeal almost as a laboratory experiment. That is more the attitude of the oil industry than what I would expect from a NPS biologist and indeed I found that biologist is very good, but has worked for both the oyster and the oil industry for the past couple of decades so that could explain the pragmatism. But he is deeply concerned about the Gulf and this quote from another source shows it:

      http://michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/our-complicity

      “Just as the floating tar balls and patties represent the tip of BP’s oilberg in the Gulf of Mexico, the initial damages to the finfish and shellfish suffered to date represent only the “tip” of the long-term damages to those organisms and their habitats,” he explained, “In my opinion and based on a review of studies from previous oil spills in Mexico (Ixtoc-1), Alaska (Exxon Valdez), and France (Amoco Cadiz), I must conclude that the adverse impacts of the dispersed and submerged oil from the Deepwater Horizon gusher will continue for decades into the future in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.”

      (Emphasis added by me.)

      There is a quote about the dispersant use from an EPA whistle-blower that is worth reading, too.

    • TheDailyBite | August 11, 2010 at 2:32 pm |

      It’s horrible, catwoods, and it’s underwater, too.

      http://restoration.doi.gov/deepwater_horizon/Deepwater_Horizon_workplans/15.2010_07_02_Deepwater_Communities_Signed.pdf

      High-profile (10-15 m relief), highbiodiversity
      reef sites at a location that appears to have been underneath the surface
      location of the DWH spill at some point in time, include the ‘Alabama Alps’ (40 nmi
      north of DWH) and ‘Roughtongue Reef (–100 nmi NE of DWH), both under
      consideration for inclusion in a potential National Marine Sanctuary. Alabama Alps has
      appears to have been under a surface oil plume from the spill since at least 29 April,
      Roughtongue Reef since -20 May suggesting that at least Alabama Alps reefs may be
      under the direct impacts of the spill.

  7. catwoods | August 13, 2010 at 2:27 pm | Reply

    That’s a very telling link! More evidence from Louisiana Bucket Brigade:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/labucketbrigade/

    From al.com, more oil washing up in Baldwin Co., AL:

    http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/oil_washes_up_on_baldwin_count.html

  8. TheDailyBite | August 13, 2010 at 3:41 pm | Reply

    Interesting article at AL.com. Wonder why BP is trying to involve layers of government in verifying lab results? Maybe next time samples are taken, the oil will be buried again.

    Let’s hope evidence does not get as obfuscated as in this case until the judge figured out what happened:

    http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/6664

    Court of Common Pleas Judge Allan Tereshko last week ruled against Rohm & Haas/Dow Chemical, the defendant, deciding that the public health epidemiological studies are “irrelevant” to the case and “can only serve as a source of confusion and misdirection.”
    ….
    The first three brain cancer victims – next-door neighbors who were each diagnosed with malignant brain cancer within the same year – filed suit in April 2006. Less than a month later, the McHenry Health Department, using outdated cancer-rate data (based on zip codes) for the area that includes McCullom Lake, told local residents there was no epidemiological evidence of a brain cancer cluster. McCullom Lake’s population is only about 1,000 people; the population of its zip-code region is roughly 50,000. Later, the state Department of Health announced that more recent data showed that there was no epidemiological evidence of a brain cancer cluster in McHenry County – population more than 300,000. Under public pressure, the county government then asked the CDC to review the analyses of the two health departments.

    Just as cohort dilution can make cancer clusters disappear in epidemiology, oil pollution can be made to disappear if the sampling is not done properly or in a timely fashion.

    • TheDailyBite | August 16, 2010 at 2:22 pm |

      Thanks, catwoods. I really respect people who don’t want to feed others what their own family would not eat. I did a new post with your link as the focus.

      I have to say that I was underwhelmed by Obama’s quick trip to a Florida beach. I’m sure the water was safe enough there for a quick dip, but in no way represents the more acutely affected areas of the Gulf, nor addresses chronic exposure issues. There is some good info here about that.

      http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/

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