You are in the current BP Catastrophe Morning Edition - AUV #411. ROV #410 is here.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
The digest of diaries is here.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
Some marshes are as filthy with oil as ever but BP scales back. As expected, cleaning oil from hard-hit marshlands is proving to be a tough nut to crack. Also, as expected, BP is not fully stepping up to their repsonsibilities.
Workers in hazardous materials suits balance themselves on small boats and use industrial vacuums to suck shiny black crude from the banks of marshes. Swaths of fresh oil flatten miles of marsh grass and cane weeds. Teams of inspectors motor around nearby islets and barrier islands, determining the best way to get rid of the oil.
Much of the Gulf Coast has returned to normalcy since the Macondo well 50 miles offshore of Louisiana was permanently capped last month, ending the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history. But in marshy areas such as Bay Jimmy, where the oil had some of its strongest impact, the fight against the crude onslaught continues, even as fewer workers fight it.
In one recent 10-day period, more than 32,000 gallons of oil were sucked out of Bay Jimmy's marshes, according to the DRC Group, a BP contractor orchestrating the cleanup there.
"People think it's over — but look around," P.J. Hahn, Plaquemines Parish's coastal zone director, says during a recent tour of Bay Jimmy's blackened marshes. "It looks like the first day it hit."
…
Douglas Gamso, a boat captain contracted by DRC Group, says he has seen oil steadily attack marshes in Bay Jimmy and other stretches of Barataria Bay even as BP continues to shrink its workforce. His boat's vacuum tank holds 450 gallons of crude, which his team filled two or three times a day, offloading the oil into a nearby floating barge. But that barge was demobilized by BP, forcing them to travel 30 minutes to empty their tank, Gamso says.
World Delta Dialogues holds a conference on the long-beleaguered Louisiana wetlands. The rapidly increasing destruction of Louisiana's wetlands is a decades old problem that desperately needs to be addressed.
"The oil spill is another symptom, like Katrina and Rita, of a much larger problem," said Val Marmillion of America's Wetland Foundation.
The problems with this delta began decades before the oil spill, and over the years the problems have only gotten worse. That is part of the discussion now taking place at the "Delta Dialogues," a global gathering of scientists, engineers and environmentalists. It is a conference taking place in a city that knows all too well the danger presented by a disappearing wetland.
…
Experts say the solution lies in a massive engineering overhaul of how the river's sediment is transported into the wetlands. "To put the river back, it's going to require some tough decisional trade-offs," Twilley said, "but if we don't do it, everyone loses."
It is a project they admit, though, will take billions of dollars to make a reality.
BP's black monster reduced bluefin tuna spawning site numbers by twenty percent. This is not a species that can afford any hits.
Numbers of juvenile Atlantic tuna at a major spawning site in the Gulf of Mexico probably fell by at least a fifth this year as a result of the BP oil spill, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday.
The assessment comes from satellite images and data of the Gulf from April 20 to August 29, it said in a press release.
The Atlantic tuna is a valuable commercial species that is in alarming decline, especially in the western part of the ocean, where stocks have plummeted by 82 percent over the last 30 years.
Peregrine Falcons on South Padre Island, Texas are being checked for traces of oil. Let's hope that the Peregrine's have been spared BP's poison.
Once nearly wiped from the wild in North America by widespread pesticide use, Peregrine falcons have rebounded across the continent. Now, scientists are studying whether the predators are running into trouble from BP's oil spill.
The research may also help determine the health of species lower down the food chain in the Gulf of Mexico.
…
"They look for a prey species that's handicapped in some way, and they'll go after that bird, so if they would see a shore bird that has oil on it, that's not flying quite right, as a predator, they'll key in on that bird, and kill it first," said Bill Heinrich, a biologist with The Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit group based in Boise, Idaho, that helped restore the birds in the wild through its captive breeding program.
Heinrich worries toxins from the oil spill may wind up contaminating falcon prey and could accumulate in their systems and cause reproductive problems when they return home. He also says if any toxins are found while collecting blood samples from the birds currently migrating across the Gulf, it could be an indicator that other species aren't faring well.
"Being at the top of the food chain, they're an environmental barometer ... You know if something happens to the Peregrine, you know that things further down the food chain, things aren't right," Heinrich said.
Six Months, Five Shrimp, and One Nasty Mess: Health & Seafood Safety Concerns from BP Spill Still Linger in Gulf Today. The Natural Resources Defense Council calls for three critical problems to be addressed.
This weekend NRDC was privileged to speak on a panel for the Gulf Coast Fund with four Gulf Coast leaders who are looking forward after the BP oil disaster. Their main message to the audience was: it may not be in the news anymore, but it’s not over.
Tracy Kuhns, a shrimper from Barataria Bay, Louisiana talked about the thick layer of oil on the bottom of the bay – a layer that keeps getting churned up by waves and tides and recontaminating the shrimping grounds.
Byron Encalade of the Louisiana Oysterman’s Association talked about the economic and psychological impacts of the spill on his family and other oystermen, and forecast that it would be years before the oyster fisheries recover.
Derrick Evans of Turkey Creek, Mississippi gave clear examples of the long history of economic and environmental disparities in the Gulf Coast, and how these disparities made this region more vulnerable to serious health, economic, and psychological damage from the oil disaster. He argued persuasively that these underlying problems need to be acknowledged and addressed if the recovery effort is to succeed.
All of the speakers told of ongoing respiratory problems, worker health concerns, and serious reservations about the safety of the seafood.
…
1) Adequately assure seafood safety. This means making FDA fix their flawed assessment of the risks of Gulf seafood (see my previous post for more details on this). And it means forcing NOAA and the states to release their sampling plans, sample for the full range of contaminants, take an adequate number of samples, and do follow-up sampling in reopened areas to make sure they stay safe.
2) Check health of cleanup workers & Gulf residents. Move more quickly to launch the necessary research studies of both workers and community residents to check for ongoing health effects from the oil spill, including both physical and psychological effects, and provide healthcare where needed.
3) Release sufficient recovery funds to the Gulf coast communities, and ensure community representation in recovery efforts, so they are whole again and can move forward to rebuild their lives.
The Gulf is deeply wounded, as are the coastal residents. The media frenzy is over, but the problem lingers on. The government must live up to its responsibility to protect the health of all of us who love Gulf seafood, the workers who are cleaning up this mess, and the residents of the coast.
USA Today looks at lessons learned six months after the spill started. Skip the industry comments unless you are in the mood for cynical jokes.
Six months after a BP-owned offshore oil rig exploded, setting off a violent leak 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, there is still much debate about what the United States has or hasn't learned from this disaster. As other issues -- like November elections and Chilean miner rescues -- dominate news cycles, there are also accusations that we've all turned a blind eye to the nagging problems that caused such an enormous spill in the first place.
Some things have changed in the past half-year, though.
...
The Obama administration has issued a number of rules that aim to prevent offshore drillers from chasing petrol profits at the expense of safety.
The Department of the Interior, for example, now requires oil companies to get independent audits of their blowout prevention systems, those hulking metal contraptions that are supposed to snap oil risers in the case of an underwater explosion, and which failed on the Deepwater Horizon rig. Oil rigs also will be subjected to surprise inspections by federal regulators, according to Reuters.
…
The Obama administration appointed a task force to re-evaluate the country's regulation of offshore oil exploration. A final report from that commission is due out on January 12.
…
Others say the spill has taught us that we should aim for the root of the problem here: the United States' addiction to oil and fossil fuels.
Reduce the amount of energy the country uses, and you inherently reduce the risk of another spill, said Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
If energy consumption is cut, "we won't have to push quite so hard to get the oil, whether it's from foreign sources or from drilling somewhere," he said.
Cohen, of Columbia, said this lesson is harder-learned.
"We are completely addicted to fossil fuels. Our economy requires it, and we don't have any real plausible alternatives at this point," he said. "We're basically junkies. So, yeah, one junkie [overdosed]. That doesn't convince the other junkies not to shoot up."
Louisiana sets up a hotline to help BP victims with claims. Nearly half of the claims that Louisiana applicants have made to the fund Ken Feinberg is administering lack basic documentation.
Almost 35,000 Louisiana businesses and individuals that have filed applications with independent claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg have not provided basic documentation to prove eligibility, according to Feinberg's Gulf Coast Claims Facility. That's 45 percent of all Louisiana claimants.
The state Department of Children and Family Services is asking anyone who thinks he or she might be in that group to call a new toll-free hotline at 866.325.2046. Callers will be asked to leave a message with their name, contact information, location in Louisiana and a summary of their claims.
BP walks back their weaseling in court about their promise not to invoke the $75 million liability cap. BP indicated in court last Friday that they might not stick to their promise to waive the Oil Spill Act's liability act. Today, however, they backed away from that statement favoring yammering about getting money from their Macondo well business partners.
BP affirmed its pledge not to invoke the $75 million liability cap in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 in court Monday, but warned that other corporate defendants in the litigation over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may not necessarily do the same.
The company's statement ended a flap that began Friday in court, when a BP attorney appeared to backtrack from his client's commitment not to invoke the liability cap. The move shocked scores of plaintiff attorneys in attendance and prompted U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier to ask the company to clarify its position in writing by Friday.
BP announces safety as the sole basis for bonuses for a single quarter. One presumes they will return to their slipshod safety culture as soon as possible after that.
BP PLC, which faced accusations that it precipitated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by placing profits before safety, said in an internal memo to its staff that safety would be the sole criterion for rewarding employee performance in its operating business for the fourth quarter.
The Times-Picayune is inviting people to take their poll on your seafood eating habits and to make comments. Perhaps if enough people outside the region complain about the lack of transparency from NOAA, the FDA and states regarding their testing The Times-Picayune might be persuaded to the topic some coverage.
Today, more than two months after the well was plugged, the Louisiana seafood industry is still on its heels. But what about the seafood consumers? Do you still worry about the safety of the seafood that you order? Has the spill changed your restaurant eating habits, or are you back to normal?
==== ROV Feeds =====
20876/21507 - Development Driller II's ROV 1
32900/49178 - Development Driller II's ROV 2
41434/41436 - Olympic Challenger's ROV 1
40788/40789 - Olympic Challenger's ROV 2
39168/39169 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 1
40492/40493 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 2
Iron Horse ROV 1
47146/47147 - Development Driller III's ROV 1
43698/43699 - Development Driller III's ROV 2
==Multiple stream feeds (hard on browser/bandwidth)==
BP videos All the available directly feeds from BP.
Bobo's lightweight ROV Multi-feed: is the only additional up to date multiple feed site.
See this thread for more info on using video feeds and on linking to video feeds.
Previous Gulf Watcher diaries:
Gulf Watchers Monday Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #410 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #409 - Lorinda Pike
Gulf Watchers Monday Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #408 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #407 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #406 - Sunday Wrap - Lorinda Pike
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #405 - bleeding heart
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #404 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #403 - Darryl House
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #402 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #401 - Lorinda Pike
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #400 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #399 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera/story/
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #398 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera/story/
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #397 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #396 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #395 - Condition: transition - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - David PA
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #394 - Transitions - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #393 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #392 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - When Can we Share a Soda? - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #391 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Talking about Change - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #390 - Drips Redux - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #389 - Night of the Living Drips - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #388 - Sittin' Up With the Dead - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #387 - Time for a Wake? - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #386 - The Coroner Won't Pronounce - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Yasuragi
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #385 - Is it Dead? - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The last Mothership has links to reference material.
Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.
Again, to keep bandwidth down, please do not post images or videos.