The danger to bird life is significant with this coming from the audubon society. This spill could not have come at a worse time.
Migratory shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers and relatives) - These birds' travels span the western hemisphere.
The biggest push of spring migrants moves across the gulf during a two-week period from late April to early May. The journey across 500 miles of open water strains their endurance to its limits. They depend on clear skies and healthy habitats on both sides of the gulf in order to survive the journey.
FishoutofWater has a diary on the birds which inhabit the areas the slick is likely to impact.
Oil Spill Threatening Endangered Birds: DK Greenroots
The scope of the fishing industry which could be impacted is frightening.
The Department of Commerce places the combined value of Florida's recreational and commercial saltwater fishing industry at more than $10 billion annually, and estimates these industries support more than 150,000 jobs.
Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker.
Another post from Fishgrease
Okay. See the little boat. See the little containment boom on the little boat. See the little circular area defined by the containment boom. What's inside the circle? That's oil! But what's outside the circle? That's oil too! For miles and miles and miles! OIL!
There's a word for this: Sisyphean.
The oil is coming ashore! ALL the actions taking place; the containment booms, the burning, the skimmer boats, the chemicals (that no one can really define the purpose of), the underwater domes (if they're ever even implemented -- I have my doubts), all of it will not make but a few percent difference in the amount of oil that goes ashore and into fragile shallows.
Stop Deep Offshore!
Every hour that goes by that BP can't shut down that well, experts here are revising their predictions and redefining our worst case scenario.
Of course the oil is now reaching the shore :
First Oil has Reached Shore - Environmental Disaster looms for Gulf Coast
There have been reports surfacing that the US Federal Government has waited to act on this, however one must not forget that the initial BP estimates were of 1,000 barrels per day with no request for help.
Remembering the rig sank on 22 April
Federal assistance requested after the leak estimate was increased by a factor of 5 one week later on 29 April
Even now there are independent groups monitoring this leak who have estimated the leak is still being underestimated.
Gulf spill is really a river of oil, environmentalists say
From Skytruth Blog : our conservative calculations showing that in the first week of this spill at least 6 million gallons have entered the Gulf. That's a spill rate of at least 850,000 gallons (20,000 barrels) per day
The company themselves have admitted to understating what they initially released as the flow rate of oil. Admitting the government's larger estimate was correct.
Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, had initially disputed the government's larger estimate. But he later acknowledged on NBC's "Today" show that the leak may be as bad as federal officials say. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed, so estimates have to come from how much oil rises to the surface.
A number of people who will be affected by this have expressed serious doubt that transparency is high on the list of disclosure by the organization responsible for the leak.
Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC....Snip
"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."
"A hurricane is like closing your bank account for a few days, but this here has the capacity to destroy our bank accounts," said Byron Marinovitch, 47.
"We're really disgusted," he added. "We don't believe anything coming out of BP's mouth."
DWG wrote a diary earlier today suggesting that close attention should be paid to the statements and facts on the ground when assessing whether the whole picture is being told.
We should keep our eye on BP
Over the past five years, BP has had catastrophic accidents on a offshore drilling platform (Deepwater Horizon), pipeline (Prudhoe Bay), and refinery (Texas City) in the United States. Without accountability, nothing will ever change.
Last August an oil rig deep drilling in waters 240 feet (this one is 5,000) deep suffered a similar blow out, the rig caught on fire and vast areas of ocean were covered in oil.
August 21 2009 - November 3 2009 they could not cap the well.
Offshore drilling disaster: West Atlas Oil Rig now on Fire
When this was raised at a hearing on the safety of offshore drilling in American waters, the experience at West Atlas was downplayed as to its seriousness.
You said it was the largest spill in Australia's history. It's true. It leaked 823,000 gallons of oil. As Mr. Cruickshank testified, it wouldn't even be allowed in this country because it doesn't stand up to our strict environmental rules.//snip
I mean, just the gallons are so minuscule compared to the benefits of U.S. strength and security, the benefits of job creation and energy security. So while there are risks associated with everything, I think you understand that they are quite, quite minimal.
Bearing in mind that oil is already coming ashore, it would be a very good idea to ensure it is documented.
The most important thing is that this disaster be documented in excruciating detail. People along the coast... get out those video cameras. Snip
Sinister Powers are going to try to minimize this disaster. We fight that with facts. Not bumper stickers.
All these diaries, from now on, need to push for a national program, paid for by BP, that mails out the sample bottles/soil pouches, grid maps, report forms, rubber goves, digital cameras... all that. We need tens of thousands of.... no.... millions of data points on this. Tens of thousands of collectors. There should be 500,000 of those kits distributed.... NOW.
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Documenting the effects on the coastline
NASA April 25
NASA April 29
 
Note in the photos above the scale reference line of 25km. I have tried to size the second photo down to match the first, it is slightly off, but still gives a good idea on how the slick is growing.
There are two very good reasons why documenting this is important. The first is to make sure that the reporting is kept transparent and honest. The best way to do this is through individuals video taping, photographing what they see and recording it.
The second is that this will be something which will test America's mettle. The clean, baby, clean up effort, if and when they stop the leak, will be enormous. The government and 1,100 people who are currently working on containing and controlling the slick, will likely not be enough to repatriate all of the waterways, beaches, marshes and wetlands. Certainly not as quickly as a logistically co-ordinated group effort.
So an accurate record of where the oil slick has impacted will assist with co-ordination efforts to clean it up.
Latitude and Longitude, co-ordinates of areas recorded
Assuming one has video or photos of an area impacted by oil, go to Google maps and navigate to the area these photos were taken.
Latitude and Longitude are available on Google maps
Lets pick Cypress Cove Florida
Google records co-ordinates of the center of the map you are currently viewing. So once you have scrolled to the point where photos or video was recorded on Google maps, in the top right corner of the Google map, is a link called Link
In the window this displays is a URL address that looks like this
http //maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cypress+cove+florida&sll=29.243195,-89.363308&sspn=0.024864,0.061798&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cypress+Cove&ll=28.274602,-81.385925&spn=0.012548,0.030899&t=h&z=16
What you see above are two sets of numbers after ll
ll=29.243195,-89.363308
ll=28.274602,-81.385925
But you will note the second set shows Cypress Cove. This is the latitude and longitude of the location in the center of the screen.
Copy just that second set of numbers, 28.274602,-81.385925, post in the search box of Google maps, and it will navigate to the exact spot you just were at.
Here is the same Google map using lat/long
What I suggest people do then is label any video or photographs with this latitude or longitude. Do this and it will be possible to build a very good map of which areas are impacted and target these for clean up.
For those who have not done much video creation and who have a set of photos or video they wish to create an uploadable video there is a very good program called Screencast-O-Matic.
As for what to do with any photos or video, well there are plenty of news outlets calling for this, however in the interests of keeping all the information in one place, I'd suggest Wikileaks.
They have a secure upload link where a photo or video could be sent with co-ordinates as the file name.
Wikileaks secure link
Maybe there are better ideas, but all you have to do is look at this photograph to see how much of an impact it has on the viewer.
Collecting these in one place as this develops and providing a way to map where via co-ordinates will be a valuable tool to begin what is bound to be a difficult, but necessary clean up.
Without the fishing industry, Frank Jurisich said the family "would be lost. This is who we are and what we do." |
