Archive for the 'Oil Leak in the Gulf' Category

Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld | t r u t h o u t | Report

Laboratory confirmed oil-soaked sorbent pad. Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

On August 19th, Truthout accompanied two commercial fishermen from Mississippi on a trip into the Mississippi Sound in order to test for the presence of submerged oil. James “Catfish” Miller and Mark Stewart, both lifelong fishermen, have refused to trawl for shrimp because they believe the Mississippi Sound contains submerged oil. Laboratory test results from samples taken on that trip show extremely high concentrations of oil in the Mississippi Sound.

The State of Mississippi’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) opened all of its territorial waters to fishing on August 6. This was done in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration, despite concerns from commercial fishermen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida about the presence of oil and toxic dispersants from the BP oil disaster. Continue reading ‘Mississippi Sound Tests Positive for Oil’

Written by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

The scene is post-apocalyptic. Under a grey sky, two families play in the surf just off the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana. To get to the beach, we walk past a red, plastic barrier fence that until very recently was there to keep people away from the oil-soaked area. Now, there are a few openings that beach goers can use. The fence is left largely intact, I presume, for when they will need to close the beach again when the next invasion of BP’s oil occurs.

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

A father jokingly throws sand at his little boy who laughs while dodging it. This, against a background of oilrigs and platforms looming in the Gulf. In the foreground, littering the beach, are tar balls. We stroll through the area, eyeing even more tar balls that bob lazily underwater, amidst sand ripples in the shallows…they are in the same location where the father sits, grabbing handfuls of sand to toss near his son. Continue reading ‘How Has it Come to This?’

Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld | t r u t h o u t | Report

James “Catfish” Miller, Mississippi commercial fisherman, turned whistleblower. (Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010)

The rampant use of toxic dispersants, out of state private contractors being brought in to spray them, and US Coast Guard complicity are common stories now in the four states most affected by BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

Commercial and Charter Fishermen, residents, and members of BP’s Vessels Of Opportunity (VOO) program in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have spoken with Truthout about their witnessing all of these incidents. Continue reading ‘Uncovering The Lies That Are Sinking The Oil’

Story by Dahr Jamail
Photography by Erika Blumenfeld

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

Since BP announced that CEO Tony Hayward would receive a multi-million dollar golden parachute and be replaced by Bob Dudley, we have witnessed an incredibly broad, and powerful, propaganda campaign. A campaign that peaked this week with the US government, clearly acting in BP’s best interests, itself announcing, via outlets willing to allow themselves to be used to transfer the propaganda, like the New York Times, this message: “The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.”

The Times was accommodating enough to lead the story with a nice photo of a fishing boat motoring across clean water with several birds in the foreground.

This message was disseminated far and wide, via other mainstream media outlets like the AP and Reuters, effectively announcing to the masses that despite the Gulf of Mexico suffering the largest marine oil disaster in US history, most of the oil was simply “gone.”

Thus, it’s only what is on the surface that counts. If you can’t see it, there is not a problem. Continue reading ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Even when it’s not out of sight)’

Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld, Inter Press Service | Report

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

GULFPORT, United States – Contrary to recent media reports of a quick recovery in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists and biologists are “deeply concerned” about impacts that will likely span “several decades.”

“My prediction is that we will be dealing with the impacts of this spill for several decades to come and it will outlive me,” Dr. Ed Cake, a Biological Oceanographer, as well as a Marine and Oyster Biologist, told IPS, “I won’t be here to see the recovery.” Continue reading ‘Scientists Deeply Concerned About BP Disaster’s Long-Term Impact’