From the Washington Post:
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill struck at the very heart of fish, a new study says. Exposed to millions of gallons of crude, young tuna and amberjack, some of the speediest predators in the ocean, developed heart defects that are likely to limit their ability to catch food.
The findings of the study, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have grim implications for the future of yellowfin and bluefin tuna, as well as amberjack, that were embryos, larvae or juveniles when the spill occurred during tuna-spawning season in the northern Gulf of Mexico in April 2010…
“They’re not going to be able to survive” as they develop into adult fish, said Nat Scholz, leader of the ecotoxicology program at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. “You’re going to be losing those fish from the adult spawning population.”…
NOAA’s study comes as BP has regained the ability to bid on federal oil and gas leases; the Environmental Protection Agency recently lifted a ban on the company. The oil giant filed a lawsuit in a Texas court last August, arguing it had been sufficiently punished for the spill…
Enjoy that seafood while you can, folks!
monkeyfister
If you’re still eating Gulf seafood, best to stop that now.
Keith G
From the, “Our government at work” files:
U.S. Agrees to Allow BP Back Into Gulf Waters to Seek Oil
I guess they didn’t kill enough the first time.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I must have missed the part where the BP execs who made the decisions that led to the blowout and the BP execs who lied about the amount being spilled were whipped through the streets of town before being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Belafon
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: If the SCOTUS rules in favor of Hobby Lobby, you could sue BP to do that.
Served
BP’s Greatest Hits Tour hits Chicago:
Warning: Autoplay video at link.
Keith G
And lest we forget, in 2005, a mismanaged BP refinery in Texas City blew up killing 15 and injuring 174.
From the link I am putting up,
It’s insane to trust these guys, but….
Frankensteinbeck
They’re only referring to damage to a single generation, AL, not to an ongoing mass population loss. In fact, the study is largely theoretical, proving that oil does damage fish’s hearts, not that there will be any specific aftereffects to the Gulf ecology.
raven
So this will keep you from eating the fish?
catclub
@Keith G: The first reports about the BP spill which mentioned Texas City said that the Exxon Valdez spill actually changed Exxon’s safety culture for the better. And BP did not change.
raven
@Frankensteinbeck: Come on, get with the program and freak the fuck out.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I’m awaiting SCOTUS’ decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby with bated breath. It will either be a victory for ACA or I’ll sue my way into into a tricked out Tesla Model S.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Can I rend my garments and smear ashes on my face? If not then I won’t play. Shit happens. I’m more concerned that a corp to which so much shit seems to have happened is again a player in the Gulf.
boatboy_srq
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I’ll settle for requiring they live for a year on a strict diet of Gulf seafood (minimum two meals a day: shrimp, oysters, tuna, catfish,… anything that’s caught in the spill zone; how it’s prepared is up to them). If they’re willing to do that, then maybe BP can get back to drilling. Something tells me, though, that they wouldn’t. Kinda like the gas company bigwigs that bring bottled beverages to fracking country, or the PG&E rep who wouldn’t take a glass of water from one of Brockovich’s clients.
@Keith G: I can’t tell whether the casualty count was horrific – or far too low. SOMETHING has to encourage folks to find a different line of work, and if the carrot of better compensation/conditions doesn’t work then it’ll be all hazards-of-the-workplace stick.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: ding
Amir Khalid
One should expect no less from BP, the corporation that raised the greenwashing of its business practices to a high art.
boatboy_srq
@monkeyfister: I always ask where my seafood comes from. Shrimp farms in Thailand, Gulf almost-anything, and others are on the you-gotta-be-BLEEPing-kidding-me list. Monterey Bay Aquarium has a decent seafood guide: risks/hazards, substitutions, etc all spelled out.
boatboy_srq
@catclub: Yawn. Good to know that SOMETHING can change any Exxon corporate culture item for the better, but I’ll still think less badly of them when they restore Mobil’s DP benefits program.
JPL
OT.. nytimes … RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called President Obama on Friday to discuss a proposal by Mr. Obama for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, and the two leaders agreed that diplomats for both countries should meet soon to discuss it, the White House said.
patrick II
What a buzzkill. I’m going back to DougJ’s sing a happy tune thread.
? Martin
BP is being let back in because the US is working on a free-trade agreement for nat gas and oil with the EU. This would free up the EU to cut their purchases from Russia, which frees them to impose sanctions. Most of that production would come from the gulf.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily make Putin any less likely to want to annex their neighbors since he needs new markets to sell into.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
A certain British PM, whose memory those on the American right no doubt love to lionise, liked to say that jaw-jaw was always better than war-war. Those same people will now proceed to denounce Obama for giving Putin yet another chance to lie to him.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Not the oil I’m worried about. I’m worried about the billions of gallons of “Corexit” dispersant that they dumped to get rid of any distrubing pictures of oil slicks, etc.
What’s in Corexit that has me so concerned? Fuck off, peon, that’s not for you to know. Trade secret. One that apparently trumps my right to not get cancer or grow three dicks.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: Some of us like to think that Putin doesn’t want to tank his economy but you are right, the President will never get credit.
Villago Delenda Est
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Yes, I missed that part, too.
There is no justice in this universe. The story of BP is proof of that.
Misterpuff
You can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish.
BP has discovered how to lube a fish though……
C.V. Danes
Really? Remind me again who went to jail over this?
Not that this is surprising. After all, the Obama administration was quite content to take BP’s side until some pesky independent scientists chose to point out that they were an order of magnitude or three off on the amount of oil that was gushing out…