Has anyone seen the oil?

If memory serves in correct, not long after the Oil spill in the gulf the doom and gloom media and even a few posters here stated that oil would surround Florida with a couple of months. The only oil that I have seen on the beaches here in Jacksonville in on the skin of the young flat bellies, and that was sun tan oil. Had a neighbor that just came back from a week in Sanibel Island, he and his wife gave the same report, beaches still beautiful, not a single tar ball, no oil covered birds or fish and no news media on the beaches reporting that they where way off base.

Granted, oil is on the Beaches in the western panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, however were not we told that oil would end up in the gulf stream and all would be lost?

Mr Logic in Jax wrote:

If memory serves in correct, not long after the Oil spill in the gulf the doom and gloom media and even a few posters here stated that oil would surround Florida with a couple of months. The only oil that I have seen on the beaches here in Jacksonville in on the skin of the young flat bellies, and that was sun tan oil. Had a neighbor that just came back from a week in Sanibel Island, he and his wife gave the same report, beaches still beautiful, not a single tar ball, no oil covered birds or fish and no news media on the beaches reporting that they where way off base.
Granted, oil is on the Beaches in the western panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, however were not we told that oil would end up in the gulf stream and all would be lost?

I saw that article ... har har har I believe most of that leeched Gulf oil was on my french-frys last night !

Seriously - oil has been leeching in the Ca. Santa Barbara Channel for 750,000 years , but Montecito beachfront property still costs $15-K/ft !

Tracking the Gulf oil.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/interactive....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews_excl/ynews_excl...

Mighty oil-eating microbes help clean up the Gulf

Where is all the oil? Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared. Nor has much oil washed up on the sandy beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast. And the small cleanup army in the Gulf has only managed to skim up a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons of oil spilled in the 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames.

So where did the oil go? "Some of the oil evaporates," explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true for the more toxic components of oil, which tend to be very volatile, he says. Jeffrey W. Short, a scientist with the environmental group Oceana, told the New York Times that as much as 40 percent of the oil might have evaporated when it reached the surface. High winds from two recent storms may have speeded the evaporation process.

Although there were more than 4,000 boats involved in the skimming operations, those cleanup crews may have only picked up a small percentage of the oil so far. That’s not unusual; in previous oil spills, crews could only scoop up a small amount of oil. "It’s very unusual to get more than 1 or 2 percent," says Cornell University ecologist Richard Howarth, who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill. Skimming operations will continue in the Gulf for several weeks.

Some of the oil has sunk into the sediments on the ocean floor. Researchers say that’s where the spill could do the most damage. But according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, "federal scientists [have determined] the oil [is] primarily sitting in the water column and not on the sea floor."

Perhaps the most important cause of the oil’s disappearance, some researchers suspect, is that the oil has been devoured by microbes. The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy, causing microbial populations to grow exponentially.

Typically, there are enough microbes in the ocean to consume half of any oil spilled in a month or two, says Howarth. Such microbes have been found in every ocean of the world sampled, from the Arctic to Antarctica. But there are reasons to think that the process may occur more quickly in the Gulf than in other oceans.

Microbes grow faster in the warmer water of the Gulf than they do in, say, the cool waters off Alaska, where the Exxon Valdez spill occurred. Moreover, the Gulf is hardly pristine. Even before humans started drilling for oil in the Gulf — and spilling lots of it — oil naturally seeped into the water. As a result, the Gulf evolved a rich collection of petroleum-loving microbes, ready to pounce on any new spill. The microbes are clever and tough, observes Samantha Joye, microbial geochemist at the University of Georgia. Joye has shown that oxygen levels in parts of the Gulf contaminated with oil have dropped. Since microbes need oxygen to eat the petroleum, that’s evidence that the microbes are hard at work.

The controversial dispersant used to break up the oil as it gushed from the deep-sea well may have helped the microbes do their work. Microbes can more easily consume small drops of oil than big ones. And there is evidence the microbes like to munch on the dispersant as well.

It is still far too early to know how much damage the spill has done — and may still be doing — to the environment. Tar balls continue to wash up on beaches. And the risk of a leak remains, until the well is permanently capped sometime in the next few weeks.

Perhaps the most important cause of the oil’s disappearance, some researchers suspect, is that the oil has been devoured by microbes. The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy, causing microbial populations to grow exponentially.

Typically, there are enough microbes in the ocean to consume half of any oil spilled in a month or two, says Howarth. Such microbes have been found in every ocean of the world sampled, from the Arctic to Antarctica. But there are reasons to think that the process may occur more quickly in the Gulf than in other oceans.

Question, where in the hell was this kind of story some 90 days ago. All the So-called media would report where the “Experts”(ROTFLMAO….) that told us life as we know it in the Gulf area is over. Yes many people have been affected by the oil spill, but not near the scale that the So-Called “Reporters and journalist (ROTFLMAO) tried to make us believe. You really have to love a story that has this statement included in it “some researchers suspect” yet these are the same “Experts” that the media runs to evertime and they are usually wrong or “Surprised”

BTW, I “suspect” more jobs will be lost directly because of the drilling moratorium than by the spill itself that is my expert opinion.

tarballs have washed up in dolander's front yard.

Sadly, I think it is typical for our media to downplay a domestic situation while focusing in on other areas of the world. I think we should be concerned about Florida Fisheries.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,859...

The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?

President Obama has called the BP oil spill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced," and so has just about everyone else. Green groups are sounding alarms about the "catastrophe along the Gulf Coast," while CBS, Fox and MSNBC are all slapping "Disaster in the Gulf" chyrons on their spill-related news. Even BP fall guy Tony Hayward, after some early happy talk, admitted that the spill was an "environmental catastrophe." The obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has been a rare voice arguing that the spill — he calls it "the leak" — is anything less than an ecological calamity, scoffing at the avalanche of end-is-nigh eco-hype.

Well, Limbaugh has a point. The Deepwater Horizon explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it's no leak; it's the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It's also inflicting serious economic and psychological damage on coastal communities that depend on tourism, fishing and drilling. But so far — while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago — it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.

Yes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the number killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 21 years ago. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but so far, wildlife-response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but so far, assessment teams have found only about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.

Cont… at the link
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,859...

BTW, has anyone heard from our beloved resident expert on OIL in the Gulf lately?

From the same story:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,859...

The scientists I spoke with cite four basic reasons the initial eco-fears seem overblown.
First, the Deepwater oil, unlike the black glop from the Valdez, is unusually light and degradable, which is why the slick in the Gulf is dissolving surprisingly rapidly now that the gusher has been capped.
Second, the Gulf of Mexico, unlike Alaska's Prince William Sound, is very warm, which has helped bacteria break down the oil.
Third, heavy flows of Mississippi River water have helped keep the oil away from the coast, where it can do much more damage.
And finally, Mother Nature can be incredibly resilient. Van Heerden's assessment team showed me around Casse-tete Island in Timbalier Bay, where new shoots of Spartina grasses were sprouting in oiled marshes and new leaves were growing on the first black mangroves I've ever seen that were actually black. "It comes back fast, doesn't it?" van Heerden said.
*****
Again I must ask the key question; did these “Experts” that showed up on the T.V. every night not know this information and FACTS? Is what, is happening in the Gulf a “Surprise” to the “Experts” and scientists?

Or did the news media and Federal Government purposely just blown things way out of proportion?

Mr Logic in Jax wrote:

If memory serves in correct, not long after the Oil spill in the gulf the doom and gloom media and even a few posters here stated that oil would surround Florida with a couple of months.

Spacemen with tinfoil hats on used ray guns to destroy the oil..

I bet you sweep the trash under your fridge when you sweep the kitchen floor. hahahahha!
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“A massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has become the testing ground for a new technique where a potent mix of chemicals is shot deep undersea in an effort to stop oil from reaching the surface
The use of dispersants is also worrying shrimpers, who voiced concern Wednesday that they could help thin and spread the oil on the seafloor, where shrimp larvae and other organisms could be affected. The shrimpers said injecting the dispersant deep undersea would "guarantee" it reaches critical shrimp habitat.

"Dispersants do not remove oil. They relocate the oil from the shores to the water column and seafloor where it is not seen or easily accessible," said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/gulf...

King of wisdom wrote:

<quoted text>
Spacemen with tinfoil hats on used ray guns to destroy the oil..

Very nice dolander, very nice Spacemen with tinfoil hats can’t be the best you do, then again maybe it is. Dolander are you still convinced that the oil will reach our coast and the coast of the UK?

Don't you get tired of talking to yourself? Cultivate some imaginary friends.Damn!

Yeah, I seen the oil.
I went to a BP station today, filled up my bigassed truck with gas made from BP oil and dumped a quart of BP oil in it for good measure.

F@#k the anti BP nazis.

Sinister Oculus wrote:

Yeah, I seen the oil.

I bet you have.. And I also bet that you could suck a tarball through a garden hose, crap it out, and feed it to your kids..