3 weeks to figure this out?

[Meg]

Brett how is the production of your "stuff/solution" progressing?

[PapaBear]

Yup Brett. As vile as the spill is/was and as much work as there is left to do cleaning up along the coast, the Gulf is one damn big place. The volume comparison I heard the other day was pretty good. Fill the Superdome with water and the oil spill would be equal to pouring in a single 20 oz can of beer.

We do well to remember that it takes a "virgin" pond filter 6 weeks to fully cycle from zero to full speed ahead. If we "seed" the filter with mature media we cut that time in half. The Gulf is no virgin and the seed was already in place. Our biggest failure was in not "helping" nature early on, but at least Nature was there to save our sorry butts from the worst.

None of this lets B.P., B.O., or any of the others who screwed the pooch on this mess off the hook. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. A lot of sub-surface surveys to be done in the areas where the shrimping takes place to see what the kill rate may have been effecting the next seasons breeding. What kind of contamination to the Oyster beds may have taken place that remains to be tested? While all marine life in the Gulf needs to be monitored closely, watching any and all "filter feeders" is a biggie for me. Fish can "flee" bad water, and no doubt many did. Barnacles, Urchins, Oysters, Clams, Corals, Sponges, etc... don't have that luxury.

The "good news" side of that is that the Gulf is filled with great habitats for use as monitoring stations for a lot of that type of marine life. Oil Production Platforms... With hundreds of platforms in the Gulf, many of which are already very popular with divers because of the artificial reef each of them represents, it should be easy to set up regular monitoring and testing of the effect to the filter feeders living on the ones that are/were in the impact zone.

[Meg]

well oil is showing up in our local bay, excuse me...areas of "product" or "material" are being spotted and addresed in our local bay.
what a crock of crap, they refuse to use the word oil, guess they think we are idiots.......oh, I forgot, they said they can't find any more oil to clean up, so I guess they can't use the word oil.

[kntry]

Meg, you're hallucinating. The oil went POOF.

[Meg]

Sandy it took four days of residents who live along the Pass calling anyone and everyone until a crew was sent to clean the beach

[PapaBear]

Now that the "breaking news" coverage has moved on to whatever they hope will be the next big thing there isn't much to see from a distance. What kind of "product" are you seeing? Is it tar balls, brown muddy looking sludge, oily "sheen" on the surface??? Without the observations of locals chances are we won't be getting any reports on the remnants as they slowly work their way in from the gulf.

[Meg]

oily sheen off shore but in the bay and on the beach of the pass a thick nasty brown sludge, my guess is it is oil that has been hit with dispersants as I understand it turns to a foamy thick mous which is even more difficult to deal with than raw oil.
it is in spotty patches and if they would get there thumbs outta their you know whats and respond to it quickly ....... so much for dealing with it for the long haul

[PapaBear]

That's what I've been waiting to hear. The thinned out "sheen" offshore vs the concentrated "brown oil slimy SNOT" piling up onshore. I wish like anything there were some time lapse camera's set up on the beaches to monitor the accumulation over a 24 hr period. It would reveal the wash up as the tide rolled in and then back out again, piling traces up bit by bit. It might also show whether the stuff on the beaches is from the surface sheen or if it is coming in from the bottom. This is gonna take a very long time...

[Meg]

from what I am hearing the stuff off shore getting spotted is sheen. what they find in the bay and on the beach is heavy thick crap. I thnk it sneaks in at a lower depth and shows up in the shallows as if from nowhere!
as far as monitoring the wash up, wishful thinking....good luck when it is taking multiple days for a response team to even show up and clean it
as far as areas where tides may pile up traces bit by bit...around here it looks like it disapears(which of course makes "them" happy, outta sight-outta mind) the next tide can cover up an unclean area of "product" with a good six inches of snow white sand in an evening!

you might say it is slowly, painfully inching it's way in around here

[Werner]

Do not fret Meg.
The Gulf is better than before.

You never had that beautiful multicolor sheen on top of the water, It looks even better in the Sunset and at Dawn, a regular aquatic Disney World. The tar balls can be used as fuel when the oil companies decide to jack up the prices of fuel oil, gasoline and diesel sending your energy costs into the Stratosphere.

The dying sea life is free food with just a little off flavor, and best of all Corexit will make a 100billion profit for BP, negating any costs they incurred and actually increasing their stock value as soon as the get their 50 billion tax credit.

Meanwhile, our parasitic Politicians will get richer and the Big Zero will continue to speak out of both sides of his mouth with two feet firmly implanted in same. Hey, but we got bigger things to worry about, aka McCollum and Scott.