World's biggest oil spill - Gone!

[marchesarosa]

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment CorrespondentPosted 2010/08/24 at 3:37 pm EDT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2010 (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 microbes survive in cold deep water by seeking out leaking oil from natural leaks.

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.

newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/08/24/deepwater-oil-plume-microbes/


Ain't nature wonderful?

[yellowcat]

As far as I could see the article did not say that the oil plume had gone, just that it was being broken down by the psychrophilic gamma-proteobacteria . The reason that oxygen levels were not more depleted was due to the lack of iron in the water preventing rapid growth of the proteobacteria.

Still it will eventually be degraded.

There must have natural oil seepage for a very long time for these bacteria to have evolved to digest oil.

[trollhunterx]

Poor wording from Reuters' correspondent, but then, aren't journalistic standards slipping everywhere?

[rsmith7]

I think the telling thing about this non-disaster is the news footage. Despite the world's media hiring every helicopter and light aircraft in the southern USA, the most shocking image they ever came up with was a light sheen on a small area of sea.
Anti-oil eco-propaganda.

[rsmith7]

Aw Joanne, where's your sense of humour gone

[lazarus]

Sept 9, 2010 18:09:09 GMT 1 marchesarosa said:

Ain't nature wonderful?

I couldn't agree more but in this case the demise of the oil may have been a bit premature;

This week, multiple independent scientists have released calculations and investigations that show quite the opposite:

* from the University of Georgia that upwards of seventy nine percent of the spilled oil still remains in the Gulf

* from the University of South Florida oil found on the bottom of the ocean in a vast area of subsea canyons some 40 miles from the Florida panhandle

* and from the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution, published today in Science, new mapping of the disputed massive underwater plumes of oil.

www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-radford/dear-white-house-re-oil-s_b_689545.html

But I do hope it does turn out to be true for the sake of the threatened species in the area, especially these little chaps;
blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/09/worlds-smallest-seahorse-may-be-exterminated-by-oil-spill.html

Nature is wonderful, lets hope we can look after it.

[lazarus]

You might also be interested in this link;
www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/louisiana_authorities_report_o_29.html

[marchesarosa]

I take it you did not yourself read the links contained in your Huffington Post reference?

There is nothing there that contradicts the finding of the Terry Hazen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that the plume is being rapidly degraded. I think the alarmism may be yet another example of grant seeking behaviour on the part of various other academic institutions eager to get in on the "research" action.

[eamonnshute]

I am sure these chaps will be delighted to hear that it is only temporary, and a non-disaster:

www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html

[marchesarosa]

Sad little victims of the oil spill!

Your point was?

[eamonnshute]

You know perfectly well what my point is. But what is the point of your OP? It merely says that the ecosystem will recover from this disaster, apart from species that become extinct. Which is stating the bleeding obvious.

[havelock]

I don't think marchesarosa is an animal lover thesequal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=climate&action=display&thread=410&page=1

[rsmith7]

I am an animal lover. I also employed an animal lover once. He wondered why I didn't think much of seals. It didn't take him long to change his tune. After hauling 100 lobster pots, 80% of them having been torn open by seals he referred to them in slightly more colourful terms.

[helen]

I fear then that an oil spill from the North Sea would be, for you R-Smith, a blip? I guess that most North Sea oil rigs are several miles from your lobster beds just as the Gulf rigs are scores of miles from the mussel shoals of Louisiana. Get a grip R-Smith and........no, you can't care about other folk - always seems ironic that a bloke on a remote island calls the way the world works. Do you need us here in Britain? Scotland?

[rsmith7]

helen darling,
Remember the Braer - much closer to me than BP's rig was to louisiana.
...or Piper Alpha - happened to be connected to the pipe that runs past my kitchen window on the sea bed.
Effect on shellfish - zero.