Update in the Gulf

2 month old Gulf Saver bags with new shoots coming up. Brown stems are the original plants put in the bag that made seed heads and are dying off. Burlap bags are breaking down naturally with establishment and rooting of plant material into the wetlands.

Videos

• Excerpts from "Restoring America's Delta" May 2011
• How Much Oil Remains in the Gulf? Foxnews 3/03/2011
• Gulf Oil SPill Kill Zone, Huffpost 12/02/2010
• Oil Spill Enters Pass a Loutre WMA
• LDWF surveys and examines oil damage to wetland habitat at Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area in the southern portion of Plaquemines Parish.
• Youtube: Pass a Loutre oil damage
• Huffpost: 12/07/10 Gulf Oil Spill Kill Zone
• CNN: - 9/15/2010 Massive Fish Kill
• CNN: 9/15/2010 - Where did the oil go? Researchers point to sea floor

Articles/Links

Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to foul 168 miles of Louisiana coastline

www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/12/gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_conti.html

"Oil Washes Ashore Again At Grand Isle - New Orleans News Story - WDSU New Orleans"

http://www.wdsu.com/news/26383319/detail.html?taf=no

The broad picture of oil spill events and their ecological and human impacts:

6 months after oil spill, much remains unknown

By BRIAN SKOLOFF and HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writers
The crude has stopped gushing and coastlines are largely clear of the thick goo that washed ashore for months, but the impact of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history will no doubt linger for years. Six months after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion, the environment and economy... http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTA0MjYwNTY=

Tuesday, 19 October USA TODAY, page 3A
"Oil cleanup not over in Bay Jimmy; BP spill's crude hit La. marshes the hardest"

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20101019/oil19_st.art.htm

Jervis states that it is hard to imagine that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis is over in the area 40 miles south of New Orleans. He states that in marshy areas like Bay Jimmy, where the oil had some of its strongest impact, the fight against crude continues. Recently, in a 10-day period, 32,000 gallons of oil were sucked out of Bay Jimmy's marshes.

P.J. Hahn says, "People think it's over- but look around." He adds, "It looks like the first day it hit." Low tide and northerly winds push the water level down and more oil is revealed. When boats and barges pass crude oil surfaces in wakes.

Lingering oil washes up in marshes as tides ebb and flow, and the passing of large vessels especially, causes sub-surface floating oil to reach the surface. A spokesman for subcontractor DRC, Richard Angelico, said, "There's so much oil out there you begin to wonder, 'How can it all be picked up?"

CNN's current updates on the situation in the Gulf

click here to view

Easily the most outstanding and complete reporting to date on the Gulf oil spill and it's the effects on Deep Sea and Coastal Ecosystems, as well as the humans who depend on them (i.e. all of us). In the Mother Jones Sept./Oct. 2010 issue. Many related and updated articles are accessible from here, especially in the Blogs.

WEFTEC Community Service Project - Saturday, October 2

The critical state of Gulf wetlands even before the oil spill, and why a serious restoration of coastal marshlands and upstream effluents is both necessary and urgent:

"Restoring the Gulf", New York Times editorial, August 18, 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/opinion/19thu1.html?_r=2&hp

"The Gulf Was Sick Before the Oil Spill, and How to Make it Well Again", by Steven Apfelbaum, Chairman, Applied Ecological Services, Huffington Post. (August 24, 2010, and relevant well into the future.)

"Many problems linked by one theme - degradation of coastal wetlands", by Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune (August 15, 2010, relevant well into the future.)

http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/news/default.asp?XMLFilename=201008230945.xml

"After the Leak, Restoring the Gulf Coast", by John Collins Rudolf, New York Times. Federal Gulf Coast Restoration Plan is to be created "to address the short-term impacts of the spill as well as the long-term environmental challenges facing the region" based in part on a recently released Oxfam America report. (August 26, 2010.)

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/after-the-leak-restoring-the-gulf-coast/?scp=2&sq=gulf%20wetlands&st=cse

"One Gulf, resilient Gulf: A plan for coastal community recovery" by Oxfam America, as cited in the article above, "After the Leak, Restoring the Gulf Coast. (August 24, 2010.)

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/one-gulf-resilient-gulf-a-plan-for-coastal-community-recovery

Mostly Gone? Not by a longshot. Recent facts and photos contradict the false impression being promoted that most of the oil has essentially disappeared:

"Ummm, About That Disappearing Oil?" (August 19, 2010, including much info still current as of Sept. 6, 2010.)

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/govt-spill-report-under-fire

Pictures of what "gone" oil and "clean beaches" really means, as cleanup crews are pulled off the job. "Found: BP's Missing Oil" (August 26, 2010, still current as of Sept. 6, 2010.)

http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/08/found-bps-supposedly-missing-oil

Microbes munch oil, haven't robbed Gulf of oxygen September 07, 2010 14:01 EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new federal report says microbes that are gobbling up oil from the BP spill haven't caused problems with oxygen loss in the Gulf of Mexico.

Federal officials say some underwater oxygen levels have fallen by 20 percent, but the levels aren't low enough to create 'dead zones.' They say that's good news because it shows the microbes are working, but aren't causing oxygen loss.

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