OMG !!!!! NEW FOOTAGE !!!!!!!!!!! UNDERWATER OIL !!!!!!!!!!!!! 15-25 feet thick under the surface

It blocks out the sun light and oxygen.
There will be massive death.

God help us is right.

As MJ said in his Earth Song:

What have we done to the world?
Look what we've done.
What about all the peace,
That you pledge your only son?
What about flowering fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the dreams,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice,
This crying Earth its weeping shores?

And 15-25 feet thick. In the beginning of the video, before they go underwater, you can see the oil slick. THIS IS BELOW the slick, which proves that what we see on the surface is a fraction of the true extent of the oil in the water.

I can't imagine any creature living under the water who had the misfortune to swim through one of these underwater oil plumes would survive for long.

Very, very sad.

No words can describe this.

God I hate BP!

What type of lure do they recommend?

At this point, I take great comfort in the fact that BP is experimenting with the *unprecedented* use of 600,000+ gallons of toxic underwater dispersant. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic)

So, when I look at that video and see those oil droplets, all I can think about is that it's even more toxic than it looks because of the dispersant.

life on earth as we know it is fucking seriously fucking FUCKED.

...and to think that they throw dispersants on it just to settle on the ocean floor...

fuckin sux

Found the dense green water under the oil even more troubling. Indicates eutrophication, algal bloom and resulting fish kill are on the near horizon. Basically a dead zone.

no-one has any idea how to deal with this. they are all trying to find ways that will have the least impact...
least impact???? how is that even possible now?

This is going to be the worst ecological disaster in the history of the world.

Yeah, its a little late for that, huh... It is all political/public relations damage control now.

I have family and friends that live in the Tampa area. The entire west coast of Florida is beautiful. The further south you go, the whiter the sands. It is difficult to grasp the situation, it is so immense, when being disconnected from it.

Leave it to humans to always fuck things up.

You could use a liberal. That way, when you find out there's no fish left alive, you haven't wasted anything!

oh how true!!

and if we've learned anything from history its that humans are too stupid to learn from history

I would counter that. Instead, I say that any old politician would do, as they're completely useless otherwise.

Where are the genetically-modified bacteria that ingest crude oil and excrete mud?

working in the White House about now.

Rephrase or otherwise explain.

Effective micro-organisms. I've also wondered why they're not using them.

Ah.. man.. that's so hard to look at.

I'm a diver... that's just unbelievable to see.. what a Disaster.

so sad.. i'll never forget those images

HOW FAR IS THIS FROM THE VENT?

Mind you, this is from 1972. This technology is not new. I have no idea why it's not being implemented, or at least explored....




Crude oil degradation by microorganisms isolated from the marine environment
C. E. Cerniglia, Prof. Dr. J. J. Perry *
Department of Microbiology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607, USA

*Correspondence to J. J. Perry, Department of Microbiology, North Carolina State University, Institute of Biological Sciences, Box 5476 Raleigh, N. C. 27607, USA
Paper number 3872 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina State University Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607.

Funded by:
North Carolina Board of Science and Technology; Grant Number: GB 23815

Abstract

The utilization of crude oil by microorganisms isolated from marine environments was investigated. Enrichment procedures for isolating crude oil degrading organisms were carried out using samples of mud collected among the estuaries and along the coast of North Carolina. The basal medium was seawater supplemented with nitrogen and phosphate. The fungi isolated under these conditions utilized crude oil more effectively than did the bacteria and several oil utilizing fungi were isolated in pure culture. Among the fungi selected were strains of Cunninghamella etegans, Aspergillus versicolor, Cephalosporium acremonium, and a Penicillium sp. These fungi utilized a wide variety of hydrocarbon substrates as a source of carbon and energy. All grew on a mineral salts medium with no requirement for seawater.

The amount of crude oil utilized by growing fungi was determined. The results suggested that of the fungi isolated C. elegans and the Penicillum sp. were most effective in degrading crude oil. When paraffin base crude oil was added to the seawater basal salts medium (0.2% v/v) and inoculated with C. elegans over 90% of the oil was assimilated after 5 days growth. Less than one-half of this amount of asphalt base crude oil was utilized. The optimum temperature for growth of fungi that utilized crude oil differed but all grew at temperatures between 15 and 24 °C. Significant growth of the fungi on crude oil did not occur unless the seawater was supplemented with a source of nitrogen and phosphorus. The results of this study suggested that fungi can effectively assimilate crude oil and that paraffin base crude is more readily degraded than the asphalt base crude oil.
Received: 12 October 1972

This is 24 miles off the coast of Louisiana, though they don't specify exactly where the footage was taken. The rig was 40 miles off the coast, if I'm not mistaken.

If this is the casse those booms on the surface aren't going to do much good!