Study confirms oil from Deepwater Horizon disaster entered food chain in the Gulf of Mexico

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.umces.edu/hpl/release/2012/mar/12/study-confirms-oil-deepwater-horizon-disaster-entered-food-chain-gulf-mexico

[font face=Times, Times New Roman, Serif][font size=5]Study confirms oil from Deepwater Horizon disaster entered food chain in the Gulf of Mexico[/font]

[font size=3]CAMBRIDGE, MD (March 20, 2012)—Since the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, scientists have been working to understand the impact that this disaster has had on the environment. For months, crude oil gushed into the water at a rate of approximately 53,000 barrels per day before the well was capped on July 15, 2010. A new study confirms that oil from the Macondo well made it into the ocean’s food chain through the tiniest of organisms, zooplankton.

Tiny drifting animals in the ocean, zooplankton are useful to track oil-derived pollution. They serve as food for baby fish and shrimp and act as conduits for the movement of oil contamination and pollutants into the food chain. The study confirms that not only did oil affect the ecosystem in the Gulf during the blowout, but it was still entering the food web after the well was capped.

…

The team’s research indicates that the fingerprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could be found in some zooplankton in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem at low levels, as much as a month after the leaking wellhead was capped. In addition, the extent of the contamination seemed to be patchy. Some zooplankton at certain locations far removed from the spill showed evidence of contamination, whereas zooplankton in other locations, sometimes near the spill, showed lower indications of exposure to the oil-derived pollutants.

"Traces of oil in the zooplankton prove that they had contact with the oil and the likelihood that oil compounds may be working their way up the food chain,” said Dr. Michael Roman of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GL049505

[Politicalboi]

1. What a surprise

NOT!

[leveymg]

2. I thought BP had bought all the marine biologists in the U.S. Here's one that got away

Come on BP. Open that checkbook, again.

[izquierdista]

3. I wonder how it's being metabolized.

Some things stay toxic as they move up the food chain; some stuff just enters normal metabolic pathways. I can guarantee you that a lot of the carbon atoms in your dinner tonight have, at one time or another, dropped out of a dinosaur's ass sometime in the distant past.

[hatrack]

4. Gosh, color me gobsmacked . . .

Which reminds me, I wonder how much BP pays for those little sponsored videos on the YouTube homepage?