Iconic

[Hissyspit]

A speckled crab is almost completely encased in a thick layer of oil just offshore
from the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. Bits of trash, such as this American flag,
are similarly encrusted with the thick, goopy oil found hugging the seafloor in several
locations along the Gulf beach. (Press-Register/Ben Raines)

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/lots_of_sharks_and_lots_of_oil.html

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

omg

[Hissyspit]

2. Article that goes with image:

Lots of Sharks, Lots of Oil Seen Off Bon Secour (with video)

Published: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 6:19 PM Updated: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 6:34 PM
Ben Raines, Press-Register

FORT MORGAN, Ala. -- A two-inch layer of submerged oil hugged portions of the Gulf seafloor off the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, a week after a smothering layer of floating crude washed ashore there.

Collecting in pockets and troughs in waist-deep water, the underwater oil was looser and stickier than the tarballs spread liberally along the beach. The consistency was more like a thick liquid, albeit one made up of thousands of small globs. Unlike tarballs, which can often be picked up out of the water without staining the fingers, the submerged oil stained everything that it touched. A hand passed through the material emerged covered in oily smears. A hunk of fabric hovering near the bottom was completely covered in oil.

The Press-Register found a number of patches of submerged oil 40 to 100 feet off the beach, apparently collecting along rip currents and sandbars. The carcasses of sand fleas, speckled crabs, ghost crabs and leopard crabs were spread throughout the oil, a thick layer of the material caking the bodies of the larger crabs. Their claws looked as if they been turned into clubs made of oil. Thumb-size sand fleas burrow in the sand where the waves wash onto the beach. It appeared that they had suffocated.

- snip -

Dead fish seen onshore seemed to have collected in the areas closest to the underwater oil. It was unclear if the fish died because of exposure to the oil. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab measured large areas of low oxygen water just off the beach at Fort Morgan last week, beginning in water around 20 feet deep. Monty Graham, a University of South Alabama scientist, theorized that the population of oil-consuming microbes had swelled, and those tiny animals consumed lots of oxygen.

Sea life begins to die if oxygen levels drop below 2 parts per million.

"We saw some very low oxygen levels, some below 1," said Graham, of testing he conducted aboard a Dauphin Island Sea Lab research vessel.

MORE/VIDEO AT LINK

[BelgianMadCow]

4. KnR - submerged oil + dead animals, how coincidental

some people wil read that as success - "dispersant ops" - and damn them.

Thanks for posting, hadn't seen a confirmation of the fish abundant near shore since the story a couple days ago.

[Hissyspit]

5. Full-Sized, High Resolution Image:

[opihimoimoi]

3. Such was the need for greed that safety measures were grossly ignored.

In addition, large scale containment/recovery systems were not in place nor developed..

Its not like this was the first runaway...its happened before....the aspect of a runaway was put aside in favor of higher profits....

Those guilty of deliberately skirting safety guidelines should be indicted for manslaughter and made to pay compensation

[Hissyspit]

6. kick nt

[Hissyspit]

7. .

[bigwillq]

8. K and R (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

Kick

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Kick

[G_j]

10. oh my

that says it all

[grantcart]

11. kick

[Swamp Rat]

12. ***Environmentalists must share the blame for spill!!***

[Hissyspit]

13. He is such an asswipe.

[Swamp Rat]

14. ******DEATH to BP!*******

[Hissyspit]

15. .