Previously unknown microbe ate BP oil deep-water plume
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:25pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Manhattan-sized plume of oil spewed deep into the Gulf of Mexico by BP’s broken Macondo well has been consumed by a newly discovered fast-eating species of microbes, scientists reported on Tuesday. The micro-organisms were apparently stimulated by the massive oil spill that began in April, and they degraded the hydrocarbons so efficiently that the plume is now undetectable, said Terry Hazen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These so-called proteobacteria — Hazen calls them “bugs” — have adapted to the cold deep water where the big BP plume was observed and are able to biodegrade hydrocarbons much more quickly than expected, without significantly depleting oxygen as most known oil-depleting bacteria do. Oxygen is essential to the survival of commercially important fish and shellfish; a seasonal low-oxygen “dead zone” forms most summers in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by farm chemical run-off that flows down the Mississippi River. Hydrocarbons in the crude oil from the BP spill actually stimulated the new microbes’ ability to degrade them in cold water, Hazen and his colleagues wrote in research published on Tuesday in the journal Science. … Another factor was the consistency of the oil that came from the Macondo wellhead: light sweet Louisiana crude, an easily digestible substance for bacteria, and it was dispersed into tiny droplets, which also makes it more biodegradable. … As of Tuesday, there was no sign of the plume, Hazen said. …
More spin by the spinmeisters. Totally contradicts other research (and verifiable facts, such as the physical evidence of oil still all over the Gulf and on the beaches).
Major study says oil plume not going away
More: On Grand Isle, the team found beaches covered in oil. Pools of liquid oil lie on the surface, and oil mixed with sand is hardened in mats along the water’s edge. Some beaches appear fine from a distance but are actually sitting atop massive amounts of oil, which bubbled to the surface when the team walked across the sand. Digging into the sand with rubber gloves, the Center’s team struck oil just six inches below the clean-looking surface. Gulf Of Mexico Still In Crisis
More: Mississippi Shrimpers Refuse To Trawl
How "convenient" that a new heretofore undiscovered microbe is eating all this oil. How perfectly typical of our lying government and complicit media.
Anybody want to bet that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory receives a lot of federal funding?
~Survival Acres~