MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Rocky Kistner – “In the Gulf, new information is confirming fears that fish and wildlife — and millions of people on the Coast — are being seriously impacted by the 4.9 million barrels of BP oil spewed from the ocean deep last year.

A new report from the Waterkeeper Alliance shows the BP disaster is still unfolding. The report points to ongoing public health problems, long-term damages to the environment, and a growing need for environmental monitoring and restoration programs to fight decades of petroleum industry assaults and the growing impacts of climate change.

According to the Waterkeeper State of the Gulf report, the effects are just beginning:

The oil is not gone, and long-term impacts are still unknown. If past oil spills are used as a barometer we can fully expect the Gulf Coast to suffer continued environmental degradation for decades. Leading scientific studies are showing that three fourths of the oil is still lingering on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, creat­ing an unprecedented and unknown new environmental reality for the Gulf Coast. Oil is also still along the coastal areas in the form of tar balls, strings, and mats as well as in subsurface sandy beach areas. Our gov­ernmental and community leaders must work in concert to find long-term, sustainable solutions for recovery and restoration.

Although federal and state authorities continue to insist all is well with Gulf seafood, questions persist, especially among fishermen who are finding abnormalities in their catches. Experts also question whether FDA is adequately testing seafood and looking for certain toxic chemicals that are associated with crude. The Waterkeeper Alliance also has been sampling seafood in the Gulf and its findings have raised alarms in some circles that hazardous compounds are entering the seafood chain in increasing amounts.” Read more.

Shrimp Catches Are Down by 99% in Areas Hardest Hit by BP Oil Spill Disaster – “This year’s white shrimp harvest in the waters off Louisiana’s southeastern coast is significantly lower than in the past, forcing some people in the industry to look elsewhere for product and scale back operations while others blame the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. ‘I am talking to the guys, I am talking to the docks, and they are telling me that they are 80 percent off,’ said Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. ‘We should have had a good year this year.’ … ‘Our Grand Isle beach is producing less than one percent of the shrimp it normally produces,’ he said. Many fishermen are blaming the lack of shrimp on the oil leak, said Guidry of the Louisiana Shrimp Association.” Read more.