Underwater oil plumes could create new ‘dead zone’ in Gulf focus 05/19/2010

Underwater oil plumes could create new ‘dead zone’ in Gulf

focus 05/19/2010 NEW ORLEANS — Giant plumes of oil floating deep in the Gulf of Mexico could create a new “dead zone” of oxygen-depleted waters unfit for marine life and wreak environmental damage that will take generations to overcome, scientists warned Monday. “Normally, in a shallow spill, everything pretty much shoots up to the surface and the impacts are primarily to surface organisms like turtles, dolphins, and birds,” said Paul Montagna, a marine ecologist at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. But the oil which has been gushing out of the wreckage of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon since April 22 is traveling up through chilly, dark waters 5,000 feet below the surface. “Under this really cold, high pressure environment the oil is getting dispersed through the water column,” Montagna said in a telephone interview. “What that means is that basically life in the entire water column is now being exposed.”....MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100519com5.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Different Aquino dog, same Gloria collar FRONTLINE Empty threats ANALYSIS Brazil’s Lula may have ‘scored a goal’ on Iran MR. EXPOSE Proof of cheating mounts focus Underwater oil plumes could create new ‘dead zone’ in Gulf HE SAYS A Noynoy presidency SHE SAYS When the smoke clears