Invisible disaster unfolding in Gulf of Mexico
By Staff Writers
Venice, Louisiana (AFP) May 6, 2010 – Oil may not yet be washing ashore in large quantities in Louisiana but an environmental disaster is already unfolding deep down in the Gulf of Mexico and in the swirling currents on its surface, experts warned Thursday. “Everyone is focusing on the beaches and coastal wetlands, which, goodness knows are important enough, but we’re missing many of the already ongoing ecological effects of the spill,” Doug Rader, chief ocean scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, told AFP. Louisianans and Floridians were warily watching their beaches and wetlands and laying down booms to trap any sludgy mixtures of oil and sea organisms that might wash ashore in key tourist and wildlife expanses on the US Gulf coast. Wildlife officials in Louisiana Thursday reported finding two lifeless oil-coated gannets in fishing waters near the Grand Gosier Islands off the coast of the southern state. But other, much less visible, lethal effects of the spill could have an equal if not greater impact on the region. Toxins in the crude oil that is still flooding out of the pipework of a sunken rig, mix with the tiny larvae of sea animals that move with the surface currents to nearby and far-away spawning zones. “That surface zone is where the oil is at its most toxic and the animals are at their most sensitive,” said Rader. “This could wipe out an entire generation of snappers, groupers and other fish.” …
