How will the BP oil spill affect the Gulf food chain?
President Obama has been shown walking in the gulf waters and eating gulf shellfish with his family to demonstrate the safety of gulf shellfish. Perhaps a little more research into the long-term effects of the BP oil spill might change your mind.
The BO oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon well is by far the largest oil contamination incident in recorded history. More than nine times the amount of crude oil spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to crude oil, nearly a million pounds of chemical “dispersants” were pumped into Gulf waters to break down the oil. The effect of these chemicals on the environment and food chain is unknown, as the chemical composition of the dispersants is proprietary, so few people really know what is in them, and the use of dispersants in deep water has never been seen before. done.
The crude that pollutes the Gulf is full of toxic materials. Chemicals that evaporate from the oil include cancer-causing chemicals like benzine and chemicals linked to neurological effects like toluene. Independent researchers are discovering significant amounts of crude oil below the sea surface, including on the ocean floor. They fear that the oil that remains could harm species further down the food chain and affect the reproduction rates of fish such as bluefin tuna, which were spawning in the area at the time of the spill.
Oregon State University researchers are finding elevated concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico as they investigate the lasting impacts of the BP oil spill. This is a concern for anyone who eats shellfish from the Gulf. As published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, these chemicals accumulate over years in invertebrates. This raises concerns about the long-term safety of shellfish, specifically shrimp, oysters, crabs, and other invertebrates. Other chemicals that enter the food chain, consumed by fish and shellfish harvested for human consumption, are also consumed by smaller marine creatures that are more distant links in the human food chain.
The purpose of the dispersants was to break up the oil on the surface so that it did not reach the ground. The bottom of the Gulf has layers of oil. This is detrimental for several reasons. Hurricanes hit the gulf and bring some of the sediment from the bottom of the gulf and bring more of that crude ashore to the Louisiana swamps. Also, the plants and animals at the bottom of the gulf are eaten by the creatures and sucked into the food supply.
The government has reopened about 90 percent of federal Gulf waters to fishing, claiming that all shellfish caught in the newly opened areas are safe to eat. In reality, however, all oyster beds are reported to be dead or dying. On October 20, 2010, Pamela Andrews told WCTC News that she bought oysters in Tallahassee on October 18. Mrs. Andrews says that while she was eating them she noticed crude oil everywhere. The Huffington Post reports that there are Louisiana shrimp that are toxic. Shrimpmen report that the shrimp they catch have a “black substance” on their gills. Tulane University scientists have found signs of a mixture of oil and dispersant inside the shells of blue crab larvae, creatures that are at the bottom of the Gulf food chain.
Even if the shrimp, crab, oysters, and fish are visibly free of oil, the food they have been eating is still contaminated. The fungi, algae, and microscopic animals that form the bottom of the food chain are also contaminated by crude oil and dispersant chemicals. Some species of plankton, which is food for many marine creatures, have been damaged by the oil spill. Any major impact at the bottom of the food chain affects the larger creatures. As fish and shellfish eat this contaminated food supply, they too become contaminated.
The actual level of impact is not known. Although there have been more than 35 major oil spills in recent decades, there have been virtually no studies on the long-term impact. The effects of an oil spill of this magnitude do not end in a few months. The effects will last for decades, if not longer. Four years after the Valdez disaster began, local herring populations collapsed. Despite the fact that more than twenty years have passed since that disaster, the food chain, the environment and the local economy have not fully recovered.