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Sea Life Flourishes in the Gulf

cpwill

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The catastrophists were wrong (again) about the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. There have been no major fish die-offs. On the contrary, a comprehensive new study says that in some of the most heavily fished areas of the Gulf of Mexico, various forms of sea life, from shrimp to sharks, have seen their populations triple since before the spill. Some species, including shrimp and croaker, did even better...

The growth of the fish population is not occurring because oil is good for fish. Rather, it is occurring because fishing is bad for fish. When fishing was banned for months during the spill, the Gulf of Mexico experienced an unprecedented marine renaissance that overwhelmed any negative environmental consequences the oil may have had, researchers say.

Even the researchers themselves, however, were surprised by the results. “We expected there to be virtually no fish out there based on all the reports we were getting about the toxicity of the dispersant and the toxicity of the hydrocarbons, and reports that hypoxia [low oxygen] had been created as a result of the oil and dispersant,” says John Valentine, who directed the study. “In every way you can imagine, it should have been a hostile environment for fish and crabs; our collection showed that was not the case.”

Also surprising was how quickly the populations grew. “In the cosmic scheme of things, a matter of four or five months led to this huge difference in everything, sharks, fish of all forms, even the juvenile fish found in sea-grass beds. That’s a pretty interesting and unanticipated outcome, I would say,” says Valentine. The surge is so robust, he says, that it may be impossible to determine whether the oil spill has had any effect on sea life at all.

Valentine says the study doesn’t let BP off the hook — Gulf fishermen have suffered real and costly damage from the closure and from what he calls the “sociological phenomenon” that’s scared consumers away from Gulf seafood. But nor does it excuse President Obama’s disastrous panic and overreaction in temporarily banning oil drilling in the Gulf, especially since official reports are now saying that the oil will be disposed of naturally, as experts predicted. Oil is being measured in parts per billion — meaning the water is safe enough to drink — and very little has been found on the ocean bottom. Much of it has been eaten by bacteria native to the Gulf’s oil seeps, and another new study shows that other microscopic creatures including flagellates and ciliates ate the bacteria, and in turn provided food for plankton...
 
Article in the National Review Online that doesn't link the study that is the basis for the article?

You'll forgive me for not celebrating just yet.

Edit:
Although the early report has not been peer reviewed, it is credible

Wait, now it's not a study, it's an "early report?" Huh. It's almost as if the NRO was trying to play up its credibility...
 
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So it seems the government and others involved had a pretty good response to the spill.
 
So it seems the government and others involved had a pretty good response to the spill.
It said in the report that bottom-feeders flourished too?
 
It said in the report that bottom-feeders flourished too?


Maybe soon the jumbo in jumbo shrimp will really mean something.


There's a movie in this ain't there?:lol:
 
Maybe soon the jumbo in jumbo shrimp will really mean something.


There's a movie in this ain't there?:lol:

Giant killer shrimp that are covered in oil. If you shoot them, they start on fire, and now you have giant killer shrimp that are on fire. And they eat you while on fire.
 
Giant killer shrimp that are covered in oil. If you shoot them, they start on fire, and now you have giant killer shrimp that are on fire. And they eat you while on fire.
Maybe the oil will lead to a mutation that will cause the shrimp to have lasers. If so, it would pretty much be the coolest thing ever.
 
Giant killer shrimp that are covered in oil. If you shoot them, they start on fire, and now you have giant killer shrimp that are on fire. And they eat you while on fire.

If you're covered in oil, and somebody sets you alight, you are going to be a bit upset with them, be fair!
 
So, basically, overfishing is much worse that 3 months of oil seepage. Nice to see that Conservative have now taken on an important environmental cause. About time, really.
 
So, basically, overfishing is much worse that 3 months of oil seepage. Nice to see that Conservative have now taken on an important environmental cause. About time, really.

Liberals wouldn't know the business end of a fishing pole if it was stuck in their asses, though they might giggle.
 
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