Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Floor

intellitech tips news of a study examining the Gulf of Mexico sea floor in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Marine scientists have found a thick layer of oil, and say it has devastated life there. "Studies using a submersible found a layer, as much as 10cm thick in places, of dead animals and oil, said Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia. Knocking these animals out of the food chain will, in time, affect species relevant to fisheries. She disputed an assessment by BP's compensation fund that the Gulf of Mexico will recover by the end of 2012. ... 'The impact on the benthos was devastating,' she told BBC News. 'Filter-feeding organisms, invertebrate worms, corals, sea fans — all of those were substantially impacted — and by impacted, I mean essentially killed. Another critical point is that detrital feeders like sea cucumbers, brittle stars that wander around the bottom, I didn't see a living (sea cucumber) around on any of the wellhead dives. They're typically everywhere, and we saw none.'"

Comments

"Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Floor

[Anonymous Coward]

"Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Floor"

Yeah... drill baby drill. Oh, hang on...

Re:"Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Fl

[WrongSizeGlass]

Exactly. That's how this whole mess started.

Who says it's not a renewable resource

[Anne_Nonymous]

All those dead animals will be oil in a few million years. We should be *thanking* BP for making more oil, not reprimanding them for the spill.

Re:Who says it's not a renewable resource

[inpher]

For those organisms to turn into oil there need to be a rise in ocean temperature, how do you expect Oh, right.

Re:Not a big shocker there

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I accepted BP/Transocean's not-at-all-self-interested assessment of the Sound Science(tm) concerning this minor, but unfortunately unprofitable, incident with the uncritical, childlike, faith that every corporate person deserves. I, for one, am shocked, shocked, that actual scientists might have come to different conclusions.

Re:Not a big shocker there

[zippthorne]

Well, Mars is pretty irony. That's why it's red, y'know.

Re:Not a big shocker there

[PopeRatzo]

How big of an area did they examine?

I agree with you, sycodon. All this business about "oil on the ocean floor" is a lot of made-up nonsense from people who just don't know anything. I mean, why would there be oil down there? We all know that the Gulf of Mexico "cleans itself" and after that little minor mess last year it's all a pristine as the day it was made 6000 years ago.

Those crazy liberals make up all kinds of outrageous stuff, don't they? "Oil on the ocean floor", indeed. What's next, fluorocarbons in the atmosphere?

As if...