Oil Companies Were Not Held Accountable for 10.8 Million Gallons of Oil Spilled in Gulf of Mexico
27 December 2019
Energy
A massive oil spill threatened St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana on Sept. 18, 2005 when an oil tank was forced from its foundation by Hurricane Katrina's massive storm surge. Bob McMillan / FEMA
The devastation to lives and homes caused by Hurricane Katrina masked a massive crude oil spill that the hurricane caused by damaging rigs and storage tanks in the Gulf of Mexico. The damage was made worse a few weeks later when Hurricane Rita struck the area. The federal regulators that oversee oil and gas operation in the Gulf estimated that more than 400 pipelines and 100 drilling platforms were damaged, leading to 10.8 million gallons of crude oil spilling into the Gulf — the same amount as the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
<p>Now, 14 years later, not one assessment of the damage to natural resources has been carried out. There is no plan to help restore impacted ecosystems. And not one of the 140 responsible parties has faced a fine or even a citation, according to an exclusive investigation by <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>.</p><p>Instead of having to pay fines, the companies whose oil spilled into the water have actually been reimbursed $19 million from a federal trust for the oil they lost, claiming that the spills and damage were caused by an "unforeseeable act of God," according to the review by <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica and its partners</a>.</p><p>The Act of God defense holds a lot of weight in Louisiana. Adam Babich, former director of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, told the journalists at <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica and its partners</a> that while the act of God defense does not usually release oil companies from liability, it does weaken arguments to hold them accountable.</p><p>"We don't normally penalize [companies] for act of God events," said Greg Langley of the Department of Environmental Quality to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>."We just get right to remediation."</p><p>The full scale of the damage may never be fully understood without a comprehensive review and assessment. Even a tiny amount of spilled crude oil has a devastating impact and damages coastline that protects inland areas from storms.</p><p>The oil that seeps into the marshes affects worms and snails, which are eaten by birds and fish. Marsh plants begin to die, which allows saltwater to eat away at the coastline. That allows the next storm to push further inland, according to Darryl Malek-Wiley, an organizer with the Sierra Club, who spoke to the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica</a> investigation.</p><p>"I think it's an outrage that they haven't made any progress," Malek-Wiley said to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica</a>. "Here we are 14 years later and they haven't done anything. A year after Katrina, things had settled down significantly. I think the oil response team should have been moving forward with environmental damage claims."</p><p>The inaction seems to violate the Oil Pollution Act, passed by Congress in response to the Valdez oil spill. That law mandates federal and state agencies to work with the companies to assess damage to natural resources. After a comprehensive report is completed on the value of the affected plants, soil, water and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>, the responsible parties must foot the bill for restoration efforts, according to the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica</a> review.</p><p>"It's pretty clear what the value of money is in a place like Louisiana, where we have these restoration needs," Steve Cochran, associate vice president for coastal resilience at the Environmental Defense Fund, to the investigative journalists at <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>. "Every dollar that's not collected [in fines] is a dollar that we can't spend on this work."</p><p>By not completing an environmental assessment, Louisiana is missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental remediation money. Cochran said that if the oil companies responsible for the rigs and storage tanks paid for restoration at the same rate that BP paid for the Deepwater Horizon spill, then Louisiana would have $700 million more in its restoration budget, according to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>.</p><p>"It's a lot of work that's desperately needed but that is only possible because that [BP settlement] money became available," Cochran said to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>.</p><p>Since Hurricane Katrina swept over the Gulf waters with category 5 strength, nothing has been done to protect against storm-related oil spills or the damage to the environment, according to the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">investigation</a>.</p><p>Scientists predict that future storms, which will increase in intensity due to the climate crisis, will exacerbate environmental damage.</p><p>"In the Gulf, storms are predicted to be less frequent but more intense when they do come," said Sunshine Van Bael, an ecologist at Tulane University who evaluated damage to marsh ecosystems from the BP oil spill, to to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-oil-companies-avoided-environmental-accountability-after-10.8-million-gallons-spilled" target="_blank">ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate</a>. "One thing that storms do is, if oil has been buried underneath the marsh because it wasn't rehabilitated, a storm could come along and whip that back up to the surface. So, the aftereffects of the oil spills might be greater [with climate change] since the storms are predicted to be more intense."</p>
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Seaweed washes up on Mexican beach. J.Sullivan / Getty Images
By Nik Martin
A vast expanse of brown seaweed stretching across the Atlantic is a threat to tourism but a boon to marine life, U.S. researchers have said.
<p>A report by the University of South Florida, published on Thursday, showed satellite images of the biggest ever bloom of the sargassum seaweed, which last year extended from the U.S. and Mexico's Atlantic coast to Africa.</p><p>The report, published in Science magazine, estimated that the giant patch grew to 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles) wide and weighed 20 million tons.</p><p>Researchers found that sargassum, which was previously confined to the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea, has spread to the central Atlantic Ocean over the past decade.</p><p>They said that some beaches in Florida and Mexico now have had so much sargassum that at times, swimmers are prevented from entering the sea.</p>
Potential Tourism Crisis
<p>The increase in the stinking mounds of rotting seaweed at the waterline has led to an increase in complaints from tourists and sullied the reputation of many paradise resorts.</p><p>Researchers said that 2019 looks set to be another record year of seaweed growth and that the phenomenon could become the new normal.</p><p>"The oceans are connected across the regions and we are going to see more sargassum coming to the Florida coast," researcher Mengqiu Wang said. "It is not fatal, it is not poisoning tides; it is more of a public nuisance and can cause some public health concerns."</p><p>The Sargassum Monitoring website recently tweeted a map of the worst affected areas, so far, this year.</p><div id="2e3a0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7MRJ621576661800"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1145030985748221954" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">29/06/2019 06/29/2019
Latest update! dernière mise à jour! última actualización!
Don't forget to share your recents… https://t.co/MODzHt0GW0</div> — Sargassum Monitoring (@Sargassum Monitoring)<a href="https://twitter.com/SargaMonitoring/statuses/1145030985748221954">1561831635.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The report's authors, meanwhile, blamed <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>, and the runoff of fertilizer into rivers and the sea, for the huge growth of the sea plant.</p><p>In particular, the team noted that total fertilizer usage on Brazilian land around the Amazon had increased by 67 percent between 2011 and 2018.</p><p>The thick seaweed also releases hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells like rotten eggs and can cause problems for those with respiratory issues.</p><p>Researchers said that marine life can benefit from the huge blooms, as they provide a safe habitat for many fish. However, they can also block the sunlight.</p><p>Last month, Mexico said it had spent $17 million (€15 million) to remove over half a million tons of sargassum seaweed from its Caribbean beaches.</p><p>Local authorities deployed boats specially adapted to remove the plant and built new barriers to keep it away from beaches.</p><p>"Fighting sargassum is a chore every day," Cancun Mayor Mara Lezama recently told The Associated Press. "You clean the beaches in the morning, and sometimes you clean them again in the afternoon or at night, and then you have to go back and clean it again."<br></p><p><span></span>The deluge of seaweed has also <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/a-caribbean-nightmare-an-onslaught-of-slimy-brown-seaweed/a-46168371" target="_blank">prompted several Caribbean countries</a> to consider declaring national emergencies, due to the impact on tourism.</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/biggest-ever-seaweed-bloom-stretches-from-gulf-of-mexico-to-africa/a-49480178" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/core/dashboard/editor/2639094022?#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></p>
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A NOAA research vessel at a Taylor Energy production site in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2018. NOAA
The federal government is looking into the details from the longest running oil spill in U.S. history, and it's looking far worse than the oil rig owner let on, as The New York Times reported.
<p>The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico received little public attention when it happened in September 2004, but it has been steadily leaking as much as 4,500 gallons a day, not three or four gallons per day as Taylor Energy Company, the rig owner, claimed, according to a new <a href="https://cdn.coastalscience.noaa.gov/publication-attachments/nccos-tech-memos/NCCOS-TM-260_Mason_2019.pdf" target="_blank">study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA). And that's a conservative estimate, the report said.</p><p>Oil and gas have been seeping out of the leak that started 12 miles off the Louisiana coast when an underwater mudslide caused pipes to rupture and a production platform to sink during Hurricane Ivan. Taylor successfully capped nine wells, but said it couldn't cap 16.</p><p>Taylor Energy Company, which sold its assets in 2008, estimated that the leak has been minimal based on oil sheen on the surface of the water. The company argued that between 2.4 to four gallons of oil dribble out per day when it asked a federal court to release it from a cleanup order. The company's executives asserted that oil plumes from the sea floor are from oil-soaked sediment around the sunken platform and that any rising gas is from living organisms, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/climate/taylor-energy-gulf-of-mexico.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"The results of this study contradict these conclusions," the report, issued on Monday by NOAA and Florida State University, concluded.</p><p>In fact, the researchers directly refuted the sediment claim, stating that since the oil is only mildly biodegraded it cannot be from built-up sediment, as the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/198dd1dde1ff4461bb8cda2e36bc2c82" target="_blank">AP</a> reported. </p><p>"While it is feasible that the heavily oiled sediments in and around the erosional pit could be contributing to oil in the water column, the chemical nature and volume of oil and gas measured precludes sediments from currently being the major source of oil to the marine environment," the report says.</p>
<p>Using sonar technology and a newly developed "bubblometer" — a tool for analyzing oil and gas bubbles rising through the water — the researchers determined that the plumes stem from oil and gas from several wells. They also estimated that as many as 108 barrels of oil, or just over 4,500 gallons, have spilled into the Gulf daily since the underwater mudslide, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/climate/taylor-energy-gulf-of-mexico.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Taylor Energy issued a statement that it wants "verifiable scientific data about the leak and a scientifically and environmentally sound solution," according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/climate/taylor-energy-gulf-of-mexico.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">AP</a>. The company has also said that since the uncapped pipes are buried under so much oily and treacherous silt, stopping any leaks would do more environmental damage than letting them be.<br></p><p>The NOAA report comes out just as the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump administration</a> wants to open the entire U.S. coastline to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling" target="_self">drilling</a> and plans to rollback safety regulations put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.</p><p>"This is an unresolved, ongoing leak 14 years later," said Daniel Jacobs, author of <em>BP Blowout: Inside the Gulf Oil Disaster</em>, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/climate/taylor-energy-gulf-of-mexico.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "This is yet another indication that we are not ready to expand offshore drilling."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oil Spill Continuing for 14 Years Could Become Nation's Worst Environmental Disaster <a href="https://t.co/2I6GHc2qdU">https://t.co/2I6GHc2qdU</a></p>— DeSmogBlog (@DeSmogBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeSmogBlog/status/1080930419741257730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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This map shows how pollution from cities and farms flows down into the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA
Every year the Gulf of Mexico hosts a human caused "dead zone." This year, it will approach record levels scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or NOAA — estimate, in a statement released Monday.
<p>The researchers predict the hypoxic zone — an area with little to no oxygen that can kill <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a> — to be nearly 8,000 square miles or roughly the size of Massachusetts. </p>
<p>NOAA wasn't the only organization to estimate a near record dead zone this summer. Researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU) released a <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2019/06/10docs_turner_rabalais_deadzone.phphttps://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2019/06/10docs_turner_rabalais_deadzone.php" target="_blank">statement</a> on Monday predicting this year's dead zone to be 8,717 square miles, making it the second largest on record.</p><p>"We think this will be the second-largest, but it could very well go over that," said Nancy Rabalais, a marine ecologist who studies dead zones co-authored the LSU<strong> </strong>report, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/10/health/gulf-dead-zone-study-climate-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. </p><p>The Gulf of Mexico's dead zone is a result of nutrient pollution, including nitrogen and phosphorus from urban environments and farms, traveling through the Mississippi River watershed and into the gulf, according to NOAA's <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">press release</a>. </p><p>NOAA pointed to the overwhelming spring rains along the Mississippi River, which led to record high river flows and flooding, as a major contributing factor to this year's sizeable dead zone. </p><p>The record flooding brought a substantial amount of pollutants into the water. "This past May, discharge in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers was about 67 percent above the long-term average between 1980 and 2018. USGS estimates that this larger-than average river discharge carried 156,000 metric tons of nitrate and 25,300 metric tons of phosphorus into the Gulf of Mexico in May alone. These nitrate loads were about 18 percent above the long-term average, and phosphorus loads were about 49 percent above the long-term average," NOAA said in its <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">press release</a>. </p><p>What happens is the nitrogen and phosphorus stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, which fall to the bottom of the water and decompose with the bacteria that uses up the oxygen, creating an area with not enough oxygen to sustain life.</p>
<p>"The low oxygen conditions in the gulf's most productive waters stresses organisms and may even cause their death, threatening living resources, including fish, shrimp and crabs caught there," LSU said in a <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2019/06/10docs_turner_rabalais_deadzone.php" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Low oxygen conditions started to appear 50 years ago when agricultural practices intensified in the Midwest."</p><p>To prevent the problem in the future, a task force of federal, state and tribal agencies from 12 of the 31 states that comprise the Mississippi River watershed set a goal of reducing the dead zone from an average of about 5,800 square miles to an average of 1,900 square miles, but that number is far from today's reality, according to <a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Near-Record-Dead-Zone-Predicted-in-Gulf-of-Mexico-511078951.html" target="_blank">NBC Dallas-Fort Worth</a>.</p><p>"While this year's zone will be larger than usual because of the flooding, the long-term trend is still not changing," said Don Scavia, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Michigan who contributed to the NOAA report, in a University of Michigan <a href="https://news.umich.edu/very-large-dead-zone-forecast-for-gulf-of-mexico/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The bottom line is that we will never reach the dead zone reduction target of 1,900 square miles until more serious actions are taken to reduce the loss of Midwest fertilizers into the Mississippi River system."</p><p>In the meantime, farmers along the Mississippi can build embankments to stop runoff, diversifying their crops and using sustainable perennials like wheat grass, which will hold more nitrogen and soil in the ground since it has a longer root than corn and soybeans, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/10/health/gulf-dead-zone-study-climate-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
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Oil Spill Continuing for 14 Years Could Become Nation's Worst Environmental Disaster
02 January 2019
Insights + Opinion
WWLTV / YouTube screenshot
By Andy Rowell
It may be a New Year, but there is an old oil spill that keeps on spilling. The trouble is that you will probably have never have heard about the spill.
But you need to know. Because, for more than 14 years, some 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil have leaked daily from a sunken oil rig owned by Taylor Energy into the Gulf of Mexico, about 12 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
<p>The disaster began way back in September 2004, when the company's oil platform, known as MC-20 Saratoga, was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. Although the company contained some of the pollution caused by the loss of the platform, it did not stop all the leaks.</p><p>Unless the oil spill is stopped, the sunken rig could carry on leaking for 100 years, becoming America's worst environmental disaster. Even now, if you take the high end of the leak estimate, the site may have released an estimated 150 million gallons of oil. This is silently creeping towards the estimated 200 million gallons spilled by <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp">BP</a> during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.</p><p>Back in November last year, the U.S. Coast Guard directed Taylor Energy to implement a new containment plan which "must eliminate the surface sheen and avoid the deficiencies associated with prior containment systems." In theory the company could be fined $40,000 a day for failing to comply.</p><p>As you would expect, the company responsible for the spill, Taylor Energy not only disputes the figures concerning the leaks, but even whether it is to blame for the leak itself. Over the years it has tried to dismiss the leak as nothing more than a mere "<a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/2018/12/coast-guard-and-taylor-energy-disagree-over-source-of-14-year-gulf-oil-leak.html" target="_blank">trickle</a>." That is hardly surprising because it could cost an estimated $1 billion to fix.</p><p>The bottom line is that this a slow unseen disaster that could have been stopped years ago. As NOLA reports, some six years ago, Skytruth, an environmental group based in Shepherdstown, measured the oil sheen coming from the platform at over 20 miles long and urged the authorities to act. However, it was not until 2016 that the U.S. authorities <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/07/federal_damage_assessment_for.html" target="_blank">began investigating</a> the ongoing pollution.</p><p>Dustin Renaud, communications director for the <a href="https://healthygulf.org" target="_blank">Gulf Restoration Network</a> told <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/2018/11/coast-guard-orders-taylor-energy-to-stop-14-year-oil-leak.html" target="_blank">NOLA</a>, "The time to clean this up was 14 years ago. Taylor Energy has shown nothing but negligence all this time."</p><p>He is rightly not the only one concerned about what is going on. Writing in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/28/worst-oil-disaster-youve-never-heard-of-taylor-energy-gulf-of-mexico?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xODEyMjg%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email&fbclid=IwAR3qKco91mgaAARlrbal8H5XhNi2UjFXlUps2wRuCdWG4JVdm03ZdPXzODw" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> at the end of last year, Janis Searles Jones, the CEO of <a href="https://oceanconservancy.org/" target="_blank">Ocean Conservancy</a> and Philippe Cousteau, from <a href="http://earthecho.org" target="_blank">EarthEcho International</a>, said the thought of the spill carrying on for decades is a "nightmare scenario that should terrify anyone who cares about the health of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> and people who live along the Gulf coast."</p><p>Taylor Energy's tricks continue. Just before Christmas, according to <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/2018/12/taylor-energy-sues-contractor-chosen-to-fix-its-14-year-old-oil-leak.html" target="_blank">NOLA</a>, "The company <a href="https://www.nola.com/business/2018/12/taylor-energy-sues-to-block-order-to-contain-14-year-old-oil-leak-in-gulf-of-mexico.html" target="_blank">filed a federal lawsuit</a> in New Orleans asking the court to toss out a recent <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/2018/11/coast-guard-orders-taylor-energy-to-stop-14-year-oil-leak.html" target="_blank">Coast Guard order to contain the leak</a>." The company said that "containing the leak is unnecessary."</p><p>And the ongoing spill has not stopped the <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/417905-trumps-half-baked-offshore-drilling-plan-is-not-safe" target="_blank">pro-oil Trump</a> administration attempting to open vast amounts of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling">offshore areas for drilling</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="d9b1b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="BD0KN81576662838"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1054457420083351553" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Largest U.S. #Oil Spill You've Probably Never Heard of Is Still Leaking After 14 Years @skytruth… https://t.co/2zcNw2GmUG</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1054457420083351553">1540237214.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2019/01/02/15-year-old-oil-spill-could-become-bigger-than-deepwater-horizon/" target="_blank">Oil Change International</a>.</em><br></p>
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Ivan / Moment / Getty Images
By Dan Nosowitz
There are several huge, pressing problems facing oysters in the Gulf. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill killed billions of oysters, droughts and floods upwards from the rivers that feed the Gulf have fed damaging amounts of sedimentation into the ocean, and pollution and development remain major issues. But, according to a big new report from the Nature Conservancy, there is hope—and even a plan.
<p>Oysters are vital to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico in multiple ways. Aside from being a near-$100 million-per-year industry, oyster beds perform the same role as coral reefs do elsewhere, breaking waves and protecting shores from the wrath of the ocean. They also, as do other bivalves like clams and mussels, serve as filtration systems for the water. Generally speaking, if a usually-rich bivalve population is struggling, it means the entire ecosystem is in serious trouble.</p><p><a href="https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/projects-in-texas-seek-to-fight-tragic-decline-in-gulf-of-mexico-oyster-population" target="_blank">Seafood Source</a> notes that the oyster population in the Gulf is in dire straits. <a href="https://whnt.com/2018/11/08/alabama-cancels-oyster-season-citing-shortage/" target="_blank">Alabama cancelled</a> its entire oyster season this year due to low oyster numbers, the first time such a cancellation has ever happened. Following the oil spill, oyster populations <a href="https://blog.nwf.org/2014/08/gulf-coast-oysters-in-peril/" target="_blank">dropped</a> to a small fraction of their typical numbers, and haven't nearly recovered. The Nature Conservancy report estimates that 85 percent of the oyster reefs are lost.</p><p>But, happily, hope and resources are not quite as scarce as the oysters. As part of the settlement after the oil spill, BP paid about $160 million for oyster restoration, easily the largest amount of money in US history ever specifically dedicated to that task. The report itself reviews the current conditions across the Gulf, and lays out possible strategies for oyster restoration projects; Nature Conservancy is particularly emphatic on the subject of collaborations between fishermen and the government.</p><p>At the same time, the Nature Conservancy also announced two projects of its own: two artificial oyster reefs, both in Texas. One will be in Galveston Bay, a 50-acre project. Another, a 60-acre reef in Copano Bay, will cost about $5 million (those funds will be from the BP settlement), with construction beginning next month. The plan for the Copano Bay reef includes one section open to commercial fishing and another to be protected; the oysters themselves will be seeded this winter and allowed to grow, undisturbed, until 2021.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2018/11/the-gulf-oyster-situation-is-very-bad-but-theres-hope/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Taylor Energy spill seen from space in 2017. SkyTruth
The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered Taylor Energy Co. to clean and contain a 14-year chronic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or face a fine of $40,000 a day.
Environmentalists had warned about the unrelenting leak for years after the Gulf Restoration Network and the watchdog group SkyTruth discovered oil slicks via satellite imagery while investigating the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.
<p>
<span></span>The environmental catastrophe was brought to national attention last month when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-14-year-long-oil-spill-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-verges-on-becoming-one-of-the-worst-in-us-history/2018/10/20/f9a66fd0-9045-11e8-bcd5-9d911c784c38_story.html?utm_term=.c6ca2813e99a" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported that Taylor's former production site is releasing up to 700 barrels (29,400 gallons) of oil per day into the gulf and could eventually surpass the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deepwater-horizon" target="_self">Deepwater Horizon</a> spill as the largest <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-drilling" target="_self">offshore</a> disaster in U.S. history.
</p><p>
The massive spill and ongoing oil pollution in the gulf's waters was even the subject of a recent episode of the show "Patriot Act" hosted by Hasan Minhaj.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="9db03" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2J6K051576662632"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1062105379054780416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Check out this clip featuring SkyTruth’s work tracking the Taylor Energy spill and oil pollution throughout the Gul… https://t.co/2zB0zzudka</div> — SkyTruth (@SkyTruth)<a href="https://twitter.com/SkyTruth/statuses/1062105379054780416">1542060629.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>On Oct 23, a day after the Post's report was published, the U.S. Coast Guard ordered Taylor to stop the leak, <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/investigations/coast-guard-orders-new-efforts-to-stop-14-year-old-gulf-oil-leak/289-616051913" target="_blank">WWL-TV New Orleans</a> was first to report. Taylor was ordered to "institute a … system to capture, contain, or remove oil" or face the $40,000-per-day penalty, according to details of the order published by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/11/20/coast-guard-orders-cleanup-massive-year-oil-spill-gulf-mexico/?utm_term=.c026a183a2e5" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> on Tuesday.<br></p><p><span></span>The spill stems from a Taylor-owned production platform located 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana that was toppled by an underwater mudslide caused by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_self">Hurricane</a> Ivan in 2004.
</p><p>
Left unchecked, the discharge could continue for another 100 years or more until the oil in the underground reservoir is depleted, a government agency <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/newsroom/library/incident-archive/taylor-energy-mississippi-canyon/ongoing-response-efforts" target="_blank">warns</a>.
</p><p>
So far, the Taylor site has spewed an estimated 1.5 million barrels to 3.5 million barrels of oil into gulf waters, which could surpass the 4 million barrels released from the BP blowout, the Post reported.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="91427" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="SIVMB11576662632"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1064929502097260546" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">After 14 years, the @USCG says an ongoing #oilspill in the #GulfofMexico needs to be contained: “The worst-case est… https://t.co/OXqLbHwzPp</div> — Rocky Kistner (@Rocky Kistner)<a href="https://twitter.com/therockyfiles/statuses/1064929502097260546">1542733953.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
Taylor balked at the government's order. "The inflated volumes are completely inconsistent with the scientific record built over a decade by the world's leading scientists, including those regularly relied upon by the government," a company spokesperson told the Post.
</p><p>
The energy firm once claimed the leak was as little as 2 gallons of oil per day until a <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/04/gulf_oil_spill_hidden_2004.html" target="_blank">2015 Associated Press</a> investigation revealed evidence that the leak was much worse than the company publicly reported.
</p><p>
The Coast Guard told Taylor that "the worst-case estimate of the daily volume of release far exceeds previous estimates and is in the order of hundreds of barrels per day."
</p><p>
Dustin Renaud, communications director for the Gulf Restoration Network, told <a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/2018/11/coast-guard-orders-taylor-energy-to-stop-14-year-oil-leak.html" target="_blank">NOLA.com | Times-Picayune</a> that the government order is long overdue.</p><p>
"The time to clean this up was 14 years ago," he said. "Taylor Energy has shown nothing but negligence all this time."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="9f982" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="HCTTUJ1576662632"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1064965475891900416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: Coast Guard ordered Taylor Energy to create and deploy an oil containment device over their 14 year old o… https://t.co/S2YhjGlJme</div> — Healthy Gulf (@Healthy Gulf)<a href="https://twitter.com/HealthyGulf/statuses/1064965475891900416">1542742530.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Taylor and federal officials have established a $666 million trust to pay for the leak response. Although the company has spent hundreds of millions trying to halt the flow, it has proven difficult to cap the affected wells that are deep underwater and buried beneath 100 feet of mud. </p><p><span></span>Taylor has plugged only nine of the 28 wells at its platform, the Post reported.</p><p>
Meanwhile, Taylor has mostly ceased to exist as a company. President William Pecue wants to recover $450 million of the trust, arguing the spill cannot be contained.
</p><p>
"I can affirmatively say that we do believe this was an act of God under the legal definition," Pecue said in 2016.
</p><p>
<span></span>The Coast Guard's order comes as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump" target="_self">Trump</a> administration plans to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/offshore-drilling-trump-nrdc-2522705363.html" target="_self">open up U.S. coastal waters</a> to offshore drilling and as hurricanes are predicted to become <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricanes-climate-change-2569932920.html" target="_self">more destructive</a> due to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="d9b1b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0HX2Q01576662632"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1054457420083351553" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Largest U.S. #Oil Spill You've Probably Never Heard of Is Still Leaking After 14 Years @skytruth… https://t.co/2zcNw2GmUG</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1054457420083351553">1540237214.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Correction: Since the publication of this post, EcoWatch has learned that WWL-TV New Orleans' David Hammer was the first to report news of the U.S. Coast Guard's order. </em><em>The article has been updated to include this information.</em><br></p>
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The Largest U.S. Oil Spill You've Probably Never Heard of Is Still Leaking After 14 Years
22 October 2018
Energy
The ongoing Taylor Energy oil spill, photographed on Sept. 2, 2012. LEAN Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Yet another reason to #KeepItInTheGround. A 14-year chronic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could surpass BP's Deepwater Horizon spill as the largest offshore disaster in U.S. history, the Washington Post reported.
The spill stems from a Taylor Energy-owned production platform located 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana that was toppled by an underwater mudslide caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
<p>
Between 300 to 700 barrels (12,600 to 29,400 gallons) of
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil">oil</a> per day spews from multiple wells around the platform, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alabama/articles/2018-09-17/federal-lawyers-gulf-oil-leak-spills-much-more-than-thought" target="_blank">according</a> to a recent government-commissioned study.
</p><p>
This environmental horror story is amplified as the
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump">Trump</a> administration plans to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/offshore-drilling-trump-nrdc-2522705363.html">open up U.S. coastal waters</a> to offshore drilling and as hurricanes are predicted to become <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricanes-climate-change-2569932920.html">more destructive</a> due to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change">climate change</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="1b73d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AXMI161576663981"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1054377833794035713" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">In 2004, an offshore oil platform owned by Taylor Energy sank into the Gulf after a mudslide caused by Hurricane Iv… https://t.co/XUXPi36KED</div> — Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA)<a href="https://twitter.com/greenpeaceusa/statuses/1054377833794035713">1540218239.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
The nonprofit environmental watchdog
<a href="https://www.skytruth.org/2017/12/taylor-energy-site-23051-cumulative-spill-report-2017-update/" target="_blank">SkyTruth</a> calculated in December that between 855,000 gallons to nearly 4 million gallons of oil spilled from the site in the years between 2004 and 2017. Left unchecked, the discharge could continue for another 100 years or more until oil in the underground reservoir is depleted, a government agency <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/newsroom/library/incident-archive/taylor-energy-mississippi-canyon/ongoing-response-efforts" target="_blank">warns</a>.
</p><p>
How is Taylor Energy getting away with this? For one, the New Orleans-based company kept the spill's existence a secret for 6 years until environmental groups discovered it. The energy firm also claimed the leak was only 2 gallons of oil per day until a
<a href="https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/04/gulf_oil_spill_hidden_2004.html" target="_blank">2015 Associated Press</a> investigation revealed evidence that the leak was much worse than the company publicly reported. After it was presented with the AP's findings, the government provided a new leak estimate about 20 times larger than one cited by the company.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="32bcc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="E9709W1576663981"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1047570848259948544" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">SkyTruth Alerts: unusually large oil slick reported by Taylor Energy at their chronic leak (since 2004!) in the Gu… https://t.co/95ITJAWgsc</div> — SkyTruth (@SkyTruth)<a href="https://twitter.com/SkyTruth/statuses/1047570848259948544">1538595327.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Taylor Energy and federal officials have established a $666 million trust to pay for the leak response. Although the company has spent hundreds of millions trying to stop the leak, it has proven difficult to cap the affected wells that are deep underwater and buried beneath 100 feet of mud.<br></p><p>
Meanwhile, Taylor Energy has mostly ceased to exist as a company and President William Pecue is its last remaining employee.
</p><p>
The Post reported:
</p><blockquote>
At a 2016 public forum in Baton Rouge, Pecue made the case for allowing the company to walk away from its obligation to clean up the mess. Taylor Energy had been sold to a joint venture of South Korean companies in 2008, the same year it started the $666 million trust. A third of the money had been spent on cleanup, and only a third of the leaking wells had been fixed. But Pecue wanted to recover $450 million, arguing the spill could not be contained.
<br>
<br>
<span></span>"I can affirmatively say that we do believe this was an act of God under the legal definition," Pecue said. In other words, Taylor Energy had no control over the hurricane.<br></blockquote>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="32148" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="Y3LPQ41576663981"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1012707106825224193" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Disastrous BP Oil Spill 'Flattened' Microbe Biodiversity in Gulf https://t.co/DuaZkGRN9u @NRDC @UCSUSA @350 @foe_us @greenpeaceusa</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1012707106825224193">1530283164.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
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Mighty Earth
By Reynard Loki
Whole Foods bills itself as "America's healthiest grocery store," but what it's doing to the environment is anything but healthy. According to a new report, the chain is helping to drive one of the nation's worst human-made environmental disasters: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
<p>By not requiring environmental safeguards from its meat suppliers, the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket—and most of its big-brand counterparts in the retail food industry, like McDonald's, Subway and Target—are sourcing and selling meat from some of the worst polluters in agribusiness, including Tyson Foods and Cargill. The animal waste and fertilizer runoff from their industrial farms end up in the Gulf of Mexico, where each summer, a growing marine wasteland spreads for thousands of miles, leaving countless dead wildlife in its oxygen-depleted wake.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxODAxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDk1OTY0OH0.SvgeUyvdxTYiFZQKBxx-MNIthXvnaxWgAu3gaxVLtzc/img.jpg?width=980" id="ccb8c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="55d8018dcb6486049536cced27966957" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Community members and environmental activists demonstrate outside Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, on August 2, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p>"The major meat producers like Tyson and Cargill that have consolidated control over the market have the leverage to dramatically improve the supply chain," according to the report, which was released by <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/" target="_blank">Mighty Earth</a>, an environmental action group based in Washington, DC. "Yet to date they have done little," the report's authors note, "ignoring public concerns and allowing the environmentally damaging practices for feeding and raising meat to expand largely unchecked."<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzgyOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDQ5MjExNX0.ouQe8cwV_Cdox_h7s_d9Reo97brD2tIS23w0I056nw0/img.png?width=980" id="7fbda" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7cc54b9a14082ac9d7229624879d57c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">How animal feed moves through the meat supply chain.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><p>On Aug. 2, the day the report was released, those public concerns found a voice as citizens, environmentalists and sustainability advocates gathered outside Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, to deliver 95,000 petition signatures demanding that the company hold its meat suppliers accountable for their role in destroying the environment.<br></p><p>"Grocery stores like Walmart and Whole Foods and meal outlets like McDonald's and Burger King have the power to set and enforce standards requiring better farming practices from suppliers," states the report, which Mighty Earth says is the "first comprehensive assessment of major US food brands on their environmental standards and performance for sourced meat."</p><h2>Feeding the Nation, Failing the Environment</h2><p>Ranking the largest food companies in the U.S. based on their sustainability policies for meat production, the report found that the biggest players in the food industry—including major fast food, grocery and food service companies—are failing to protect the environment from the impact of their supply chains. Remarkably, the researchers found that not a single one of the 23 major brands surveyed have policies in place to require "even minimal environmental protections from meat suppliers."</p><p>Even more startling is that so-called "green" brands like Whole Foods that have built their reputations on providing sustainable food options have, according to the report, "failed to commit to environmentally responsible farming practices that protect drinking water, prevent agricultural runoff and curb climate emissions."</p><p>The <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/meat-scorecard" target="_blank">23 companies surveyed</a> were evaluated on their requirements for meat suppliers regarding where they source their animal feed, how they process their animals' manure and how they manage their greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p><a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/meat-scorecard" target="_blank">All but one of the companies scored an "F"</a> overall for their environmental policies (or lack thereof) for meat sourcing. The only company to score better than an "F" was Walmart, which received a "D" due to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain, as well as the launching of programs meant to improve the management of manure and <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/is-walmart-the-key-to-making-american-farming-more-sustainable-37af74a3ce22/" target="_blank">increase the sustainability of corn and soy farming</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzgzNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Mjc4OTE2OX0.0X8x68Yv2M8MecUjHIMzFk3BLBOktQcJrVNv6A0Kqq0/img.jpg?width=980" id="aa6fc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="904d8b2e353ca31289c7792791596832" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Soil erosion and agricultural runoff are the top sources of water pollution in the U.S.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mighty Earth</small></p><h2>Dead Cows on Your Plate, Dead Fish in the Ocean</h2><p>In oceans and large lakes across the globe, human activities are creating oxygen-depleted areas where marine life can no longer survive. These hypoxic areas, currently numbering <a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-zones-are-a-global-water-pollution-challenge-but-with-sustained-effort-they-can-come-back-to-life-96077" target="_blank">more than 400 around the globe</a>, are commonly known as "dead zones," and are caused by an increase in certain chemical nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that drive the massive growth of algae, causing the spread of deadly "algal blooms." As the algae decomposes, their biomass consumes the oxygen in the water, suffocating fish and other marine life.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzg1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODgxNzUzMn0.45UR_nBUGa6FIn9kQ_VnPJ8L72HYHc7mNiDVmq43cao/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c4e8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ec69a8e1ecc6d5e426b539fe1e5d7241" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Algal blooms are harmful to ecosystems because the blooming organisms contain toxins, noxious chemicals or pathogens. They also suck up all the oxygen, killing fish and other marine life.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</small></p><p>In the U.S. the largest recurring dead zone is located in the Gulf of Mexico, mainly off the coast of Louisiana, and extending east to the Mississippi River Delta and west to Texas. The Gulf acts as a massive drainage basin for polluted water containing <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf" target="_blank">manure and fertilizer runoff coming from the American heartland</a>, from major beef-producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. During summer months, this area becomes a 7,000-mile-wide lifeless region—the only reminders of past life being the bodies of fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine animals that have suffocated due to a lack of oxygen. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180607120724.htm" target="_blank"> second-largest human-caused dead zone</a> in the world, after the hypoxic zone in the <a href="https://www.zmescience.com/science/oman-gulf-dead-zone-2924534/" target="_blank">Gulf of Oman</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzkwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzcwNDYwMX0.bcDzLCp92jOQY7WnoNr9RyAljq7s5jZ61HZ5p3D4GL0/img.jpg?width=980" id="b726c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2bf6753427cecaa6f9abb99fe6c8e8f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin drains approximately 41 percent of the contiguous United States that includes all or part of 31 states and two Canadian provinces. Map scale is approximately 2,000 miles across.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="http://deq.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Water/LA_Nutrient_Management_Strategy_FINAL_May2014.pdf" target="_blank">Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality</a></small></p><p>"Excess nutrients bleeding off fertilized crops constitute the overwhelming source—over 70 percent—of the nutrient pollution that causes the Gulf Dead Zone," Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science and former president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, told the Independent Media Institute.<br></p><p>In August 2017, scientists measured the Gulf of Mexico dead zone and found that it was at its <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-is-largest-ever-measured" target="_blank">largest since the mapping of the zone began in 1985</a>—more than 8,000 square miles. But recently, scientists reported that the area is only about 40 percent of its average size. That doesn't mean that it is no longer an issue. "Although the area is small this year, we should not think that the low-oxygen problem in the Gulf of Mexico is solved," Nancy Rabalais, a marine ecologist at Louisiana State University and the lead scientist of the study, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">told </a><a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">T</a><a href="https://www.apnews.com/622dc4fde853414a81602d56596566c6" target="_blank">he Associated Press</a>. "We are not close to the goal size for this hypoxic area."</p><p><a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf" target="_blank">Nearly half (45 percent)</a> of the Earth's landmass is being farmed by the global industrial livestock system, which includes both the animals killed for human consumption and the crops used to feed those animals. The current human population, 7.6 billion, is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533935054/u-n-says-world-s-population-will-reach-9-8-billion-by-2050" target="_blank">expected</a> to swell to 9.8 billion by the year 2050. And if <a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank">most of </a><a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank">them</a><a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise" target="_blank"> will be meat-eaters</a>, the negative impact of the meat industry on marine ecosystems and coastal communities, if not addressed soon, will surely get worse. According to NASA, "The number and size of ocean dead zones is closely connected to human population density." It's basic math: More people means more meat-eaters, and more meat production means more and bigger dead zones.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzkyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDExODMzM30.MMHFKSCvSFsBf_Ti2MjAKElns-05UJnKCRein63yDOc/img.jpg?width=980" id="aaf97" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7b82eaff2daee02c3af177c831ccecf0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Red circles show the location and size of many dead zones. Black dots show dead zones of unknown size. The size and number of marine dead zones—areas where the deep water is so low in dissolved oxygen that sea creatures can't survive—have grown explosively in the past half-century.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NASA Earth Observatory, 2008</small></p><h2>More Pathogens, More Pollutants, Less Profit</h2><p>Dead zones could also introduce a host of public and animal health issues. Boesch points out that "various pathogenic microorganisms can thrive" in hypoxic areas. A 2012 <a href="https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/79/3/773/493070" target="_blank">study</a> published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology discovered "sequences affiliated with Clostridium," a human pathogen that <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/botulism" target="_blank">causes botulism and diarrhea</a>, in the hypoxic zone of China's Lake Taihu. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns that algal blooms contain cyanobacteria, "which are <a href="http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/index.php/project/harmful-algal-blooms/" target="_blank">poisonous to humans and deadly to livestock and pets</a>."</p><p>Renee Dufault is a former environmental health officer for the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute. Dufault told the Independent Media Institute that the antibiotics and hormones injected into animals raised for food "are pollutants themselves when they are released from manure via surface water runoff into streams that may be used as drinking water supplies."</p><p>Dead zones also have economic impacts that harm local communities. The NOAA estimates that marine dead zones cost the U.S. food and tourism industries <a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank">$82 </a><a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank">million</a><a href="https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/cscor-provides-testimony-to-congress-in-support-of-harmful-algae-and-hypoxia-law/" target="_blank"> every year</a>.</p><h2>Risky Business: Eating Meat</h2><p>The main source of water contamination in the U.S. is the manure and fertilizer coming from industrial farms that grow feed to raise animals to be killed for human consumption.</p><p>The production of meat isn't just one of the most polluting of all human activities, contaminating waterways and driving the growth of dead zones across the world; it's literally bulldozing the planet's landscape. By converting rainforests and prairies into industrial farms, large-scale meat producers are responsible for the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/is-the-livestock-industry-destroying-the-planet-11308007/" target="_blank">widespread destruction of many of the planet's native ecosystems</a>, which threatens wildlife by destroying native habitats and releases stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further exacerbating climate change. Animals raised for food produce 42 percent of agricultural emissions in the U.S. Two-thirds of those gases are emitted directly by those animals in the form of belches and farts. And the majority of those emissions—around <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/" target="_blank">44 percent</a>—is methane, a greenhouse gas that is <a href="https://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2014/03/26/a-more-potent-greenhouse-gas-than-co2-methane-emissions-will-leap-as-earth-warms-nature/" target="_blank">30 times more potent</a> than carbon dioxide.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.iatp.org/emissions-impossible" target="_blank">report</a> released in July by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy offers some perspective: The top five meat and dairy companies, including Tyson and Cargill, emit more greenhouse gases combined than ExxonMobil, Shell or BP.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzk1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDU2NjY2MX0.8PHnXTmoKQ7GWutobHPZPzxSKwxuplm1XkWwOgY3ISo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b4094" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cbc9a0dd7752670c92aaae92922e8788" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This NASA satellite image shows deforestation in the state of Rondonia in western Brazil, where land has been converted for cattle farming. In 2017, Brazil exported 1.3 million metric tons of beef to the United States, worth $6.2 billion.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NASA</small></p><h2>A Few Bright Spots<br></h2><p>The Mighty Earth report does note a few positive developments. Of the sectors studied, the food service industry that caters meals to universities and hospitals "is doing the most to promote plant-based diets, with Aramark reporting that 30 percent of its menus offer non-meat options and Sodexo reducing beef consumption through its mushroom-blended burger initiative." And McDonald's states that it is moving toward <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/McDonalds.pdf" target="_blank">100 percent sustainably certified soy by 2020</a> to feed the chickens it sources in Europe. (Unfortunately, that requirement isn't in place for U.S. suppliers.)</p><p>"Bright spots were few and far between," the report states, "but indicate that awareness is growing and improvements are possible."</p><p>Possible, yes. But probable? The food industry has shown a reluctance to enact sustainable practices, but has sometimes responded to consumer demand for change. "Many of these companies have set requirements for meat suppliers to improve practices around animal welfare and antibiotic overuse when the public pressured them to do so," Mighty Earth campaign director Lucia von Reusner told the Independent Media Institute. Her organization is hoping that their report will help raise public awareness, and that in turn will spur change within the industry.</p><p>"The public is now waking up to the industry's polluting practices and demanding improvements," she said.</p><h2>Reforming the Meat Industry</h2><p>One of the biggest misperceptions that the general public has about dead zones, says Boesch, is that "there is nothing we can do about them." He points out that, "although experience in other parts of the world shows that while it may take years for the excess nutrients to wash out of the watershed and [be] purged from bottom sediments, we can eventually breathe life back into dead zones if we reduce nutrient pollution. We are now seeing the dead zone in the Chesapeake gradually becoming less severe and smaller."</p><p>The Mighty Earth report recommends that meat producers start employing better farming practices to help curtail the destruction. One way to reduce the need of fertilizers on crops used to feed livestock, for example, is to use cover crops, which involves planting certain species on fields that can suffocate weeds, control pests and diseases, reduce soil erosion, improve soil health, boost water availability and increase biodiversity—all of which would benefit any farm. Mighty Earth also recommends that meat producers employ better fertilizer management, conserve native vegetation and centralize manure processing.</p><p>"The environmental damage caused by the meat industry is driving some of the most urgent threats to the future of our food system—from contaminated waters to depleted soils and a destabilized climate," von Reusner said. "More sustainable farming practices are urgently needed if we are going to feed a growing population on a planet of finite resources."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<a href="https://mighty.maphubs.com/map/public-embed/HyWMLJ68b/interactive" target="_blank"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQxNzk5My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDY5NDYzMX0.2eMO-5Rt6mpcAB6e_hviy1Qpn9IEqTMENN4sIHsQ4zY/img.png?width=980" id="86c60" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc7fdc5310b7caaaa13233505a15d856" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Map of nitrate levels by watersheds, 2016 overlaid with Tyson and top feed supplier facilities (<a href="https://mighty.maphubs.com/map/public-embed/HyWMLJ68b/interactive" target="_blank">View Larger Map</a>)</small></p><p>Unfortunately, there is little that the federal government is doing on this front. "Runoff pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from producing meat are largely unregulated in the US," von Reusner notes. "There need to be much stronger regulations that protect our waters and climate from the meat industry's pollution."<br></p><p>Boesch notes that an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/2001_04_04_msbasin_actionplan2001.pdf" target="_blank">action plan</a> agreed upon in 2001 by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force was meant to scale down the amount of nutrient pollution in the Gulf by 30 percent. But, he says the plan "lacks teeth." Consequently, he said, "not only has the Gulf's dead zone <em>not</em> shrunk, but the concentrations of polluting nutrients in the Mississippi River have not declined—and may have even increased."</p><p>In the meantime, polluting the Gulf with meat production runoff continues apace. The 2001 federal and state action plan, which was reaffirmed and amended in 2008, hasn't achieved its goal to reduce the hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA scientists have forecasted this summer's dead zone to be "<a href="http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/average-sized-dead-zone-forecast-for-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">similar to the 33-year average Gulf dead zone of 5,460 square miles</a>," which the agency points out is about the size of Connecticut. "This should be getting more attention by regulators, lawmakers and industry," said Boesch. "Unfortunately, the industry has worked with politicians to prevent regulations."</p><p>He notes that the plan to revive the Chesapeake Bay has each state "allocated a certain amount of reduction in nutrient pollution and is under a legally binding agreement under the Clean Water Act to accomplish this by 2025." But there is no such legal force when it comes to the Mississippi Basin states that are polluting the Gulf. Those states, says Boesch, "have never even been assigned an amount of pollution reduction for which they are responsible, much less been bound to it. The states have resisted even this first step in accepting responsibility. All efforts are strictly voluntary. So, there can be little wonder why, despite the commitment to reduce the size of the dead zone by two-thirds, there has been virtually no reduction in polluting nutrients discharged by the river after 17 years."</p><p>While reforming the meat industry's unsustainable practices is a way to stop the spread of dead zones, change from within isn't coming quickly enough. That's where consumers can play a vital role, says von Reusner. "Consumers need to demand that their favorite food companies provide more sustainable options by requiring more sustainable farming practices from meat suppliers."</p><p><em><a href="https://truthout.org/authors/reynard-loki/" target="_blank">Reynard Loki</a> is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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Dead Zones Are a Global Water Pollution Challenge — But With Sustained Effort They Can Come Back to Life
04 May 2018
Climate
A massive dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico every year, fed by farm runoff that washes down the Mississippi River. EPA
By Donald Scavia
Scientists have identified a dead zone as large as Florida in the Gulf of Oman, which connects the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Around the world there are more than 400 current dead zones in oceans and lakes, where water contains so little oxygen that aquatic life can't survive.
<p>
Dead zones form when aquatic organisms consume dissolved oxygen faster than it can be supplied. This typically happens when warmer water sits on top of colder water, or freshwater sits on top of saltier water—for example, where a river meets the sea. In either case the water on top is less dense and floats. The layers don't mix much, so very little oxygen from the atmosphere reaches the lower layers.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzYyNzM2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzIyNjEwOX0.ZO-tHxPH5zQsSTcbIglgJZm_iRuCtGjbV_Mq18Wbe58/img.jpg?width=980" id="8f1bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="012208c674d42c3089549a9c0a1a7d5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Blooms of algae, like this growth in 2015 in Lake St. Clair between Michigan and Ontario, promote the formation of dead zones.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Flickr / CC BY 2.0</small>
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The next ingredient is organic matter in the water. It can come from untreated sewage, or from blooms of algae, along with dead plankton and fish. This material eventually sinks into the bottom layer, where bacteria decompose it, using oxygen as fuel. This process can consume most or all of the oxygen from the water.<br>
</p><p>
Temperature is also a factor. Higher temperatures promote faster algae growth, enhance formation of layers in the water, and reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen that the water can hold. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2633-2013" target="_blank">Climate change</a> is tending to increase temperatures and make dead zones worse.
</p><p>
But the biggest driver is nutrient pollution—excess inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients stimulate algae growth. They come from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, and increasingly from <a href="https://theconversation.com/nutrient-pollution-voluntary-steps-are-failing-to-shrink-algae-blooms-and-dead-zones-81249" target="_blank">fertilizer runoff from industrial-scale agriculture</a>.
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A recent <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7240" target="_blank">global-scale analysis</a> shows that oxygen-depleted zones in the open ocean have expanded by several million square kilometers since the mid-20th century, and oxygen concentrations at hundreds of coastal sites like the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/24868567?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank">Gulf of Mexico</a> are now low enough to limit the distribution and abundance of fish. These impacts are also being felt in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1505815112" target="_blank">estuaries</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2009.07.027" target="_blank">Great Lakes</a>.
</p><p>
As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-K4wV5QAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">my research</a> has shown, large-scale dead zones are resistant to change. But nutrient reductions in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-pollution-in-the-chesapeake-bay-has-helped-underwater-grasses-rebound-92716" target="_blank">Chesapeake Bay</a> are starting to improve conditions there. Communities around Lake Erie <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133014000252?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">dramatically reduced its dead zone and toxic algae blooms</a> in the 1970s by reducing phosphorus inputs. Now, however, these issues are <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-algae-leads-ohio-to-designate-western-lake-erie-as-impaired/" target="_blank">resurfacing there</a>—evidence that this problem is an ongoing challenge.
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-zones-are-a-global-water-pollution-challenge-but-with-sustained-effort-they-can-come-back-to-life-96077" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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A Kemp's ridley hatchling makes its way to the water on Padre Island, Texas. Terry Ross, CC BY-SA
By Pamela T. Plotkin
On beaches from North Carolina to Texas and throughout the wider Caribbean, one of nature's great seasonal events is underway. Adult female sea turtles are crawling out of the ocean, digging deep holes in the sand and laying eggs. After about 60 days turtle hatchlings will emerge and head for the water's edge, fending for themselves from their first moments.
<p>
I have spent 36 years <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z4kvYwYAAAAJ&hl=en_" target="_blank">studying sea turtle ecology and conservation</a>. All seven species of sea turtle found around the world are <a href="https://iucn-mtsg.org/about/structure-role/red-list/" target="_blank">classified as vulnerable or endangered</a>. Nesting season is an important opportunity for us to collect data on turtle abundance and trends. For those of us who have spent decades studying turtles on nesting beaches, anticipation builds as we prepare for their arrival. And when that first turtle comes ashore to usher in the nesting season, it feels as though we are welcoming home old friends.
</p><p>
Today most coastal areas in the U.S. protect beaches during nesting season. Government agencies, researchers and volunteers monitor many beaches and help hatchlings make it to the water. These measures have helped turtle populations increase. For example, the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle (<em>Lepidochelys kempii</em>), which was on the brink of extinction in the mid-1980s, has increased from a few hundred nests to more than 20,000 nests laid in 2017.
</p><p>
But turtles face many hazards in the water, including <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics">plastic</a> pollution and accidental harm or death in encounters with commercial fishermen. The future of sea turtle research depends on finding new ways to assess turtles' status and trends at sea as well as on the beach.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzU5NDE5My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTc2NTQyOX0.Jn88DNC3oOUmYqHtJ8tLzAr1Z-Al3X3bk_ump8oBDdc/img.jpg?width=980" id="dc613" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2e9253f0e0fe31f93ee3a165b70ac1e1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">National Park Service biologist Shelby Moneysmith at a loggerhead turtle nest in Biscayne National Park, Florida </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">NPS</small>
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<strong>Tallying Turtle Nests<br>
</strong></p><p>
Female sea turtles typically nest several times in a year. They may leave all of their eggs at one specific beach or nest at several beaches to spread out their reproductive investment. They typically return to the same stretch of coast year after year.
</p><p>
To monitor population trends, scientists count the number of nests made on a beach during an entire nesting season. They estimate how many times an individual female turtle nests during one nesting season, and use simple arithmetic to calculate the estimated number of females that nested that year.
</p><p>
We also walk nesting beaches to find individual turtles, collect data and biological samples from them and attach tags to their flippers. If researchers re-encounter a tagged turtle during a subsequent nesting season, they will record her return and revise their estimate of how many offspring she produces. Sea turtles typically nest every two, three or four years, so biologists need long-term data over multiple decades to track population trends.
</p><p>
On a few beaches, olive ridley sea turtles (<em>Lepidochelys olivacea</em>) emerge synchronously and en masse to nest in enormous groups of hundreds to thousands, known as arribadas (Spanish for "arrival"). When this happens there are so many turtles nesting at one time that a person could walk from shell to shell across the beach without stepping on the sand. It is impossible to count most of these turtles, and finding a tagged individual from among the throngs is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
</p><p>
Witnessing an arribada is the most thrilling wonder of nature I have experienced. The sight, smell and sound of thousands of turtles on a beach digging holes in the sand and laying eggs, choreographed to music only they can hear and understand, is indescribable.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzU5NDIwNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjk2NzAzM30.Q-HeqJK1fBD2OLFQfWL4nKCIxNhYf_MehQPOnkvfeOs/img.jpg?width=980" id="0a07a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="374b8bacf10354a8cefc7b2d3736ecc0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Olive ridley sea turtles in an arribada (mass nesting)</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Christine Figgener, CC BY-ND</small></p><p>
<strong>An Incomplete Picture<br>
</strong></p><p>
Although researchers have used these methods for decades, they do not give us a full enough picture to assess how well global <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> efforts are working.
</p><p>
One challenge is that there are too many turtles and not enough funding to record every nest at most beaches. Many nesting sites are remote, hard to access and logistically challenging places to live and work for months at a time. There are tens of thousands of miles of coastline where no one counts sea turtle nests regularly and systematically.
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Second, turtles don't always produce the same number of young from one season to another. Like all <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/animals/">animals</a>, they invest their energy into metabolism, growth, survival and reproduction. When food is limited, they often lay fewer eggs.
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Third, and perhaps most importantly, breeding females are not the only important sea turtle demographic group. Biologists want to develop population models they can use to interpret population changes, identify threats in marine habitats, predict risk, evaluate the impacts of management activities and assess sea turtle status and trends. To do this, we also need other demographic information, such as age-specific and sex-specific survival rates and age at sexual maturity. Researchers are trying to collect these kinds of data, but it is logistically challenging when we are dealing with turtles at sea.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzU5NDIxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDUyNjMxNn0.KR8AM_WBtd6r5KhqWRnuEmPtdPhSPpvn0HpPQk3ztkI/img.jpg?width=980" id="74589" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef75b182c700cad1a835354cb45209d3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Juvenile Kemp's ridley turtle equipped with a miniature solar-powered satellite transmitter to track its movements</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Florida FWC, CC BY-NC-ND</small></p><p><strong>Hazards in the Water<br></strong></p><p>
These constraints help to explain why a <a href="https://goms.disl.org/images/goms-33-02-138.pdf" target="_blank">recent study</a> to develop a stock assessment model for Kemp's ridley sea turtles found that the population was growing at a slower rate than scientists had anticipated. The study did not identify a specific cause, but it took many demographic variables into account, as well as conservation efforts and turtles killed by fishermen. All of these factors are critically important to assessing a population's status and projecting its future growth.
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Another recent <a href="https://goms.disl.org/images/goms-33-02-158.pdf" target="_blank">study</a> showed that since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico—the prime residence area for Kemp's ridleys—the turtles have produced fewer young. The spill triggered significant environmental changes in the Gulf, across multiple habitats and species including invertebrates, birds, fish and dolphins.
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Oil spills aren't the only threat. According to a recent <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w" target="_blank">estimate</a>, the Pacific Ocean garbage patch covers an area "twice the size of Texas." According to some projections, by 2050 the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">oceans</a> will contain <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf" target="_blank">more plastic than fish</a>.
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Ocean plastic can kill <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine animals</a> when they are ensnared by it or ingest it in large quantities. Scientists have found many species feeding on ocean plastics, from <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00039" target="_blank">fish living in the deepest ocean trenches</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1502108112" target="_blank">seabirds feeding at the surface</a>. Since the early 1980s, I have studied sea turtle diets and have found plastic in the stomachs and intestines of virtually all sea turtle species from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.
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Some advocates assert that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/04/20/earth-day-events-end-plastic-pollution-ocean-environment-recycle-2018-column/528312002/" target="_blank">most of this trash comes from fishing gear</a>. Fishing certainly is a major source: One survey of the Pacific garbage patch found that broken fishing nets <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/climate/great-pacific-garbage-patch.html" target="_blank">comprised nearly half of it by weight</a>.
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But consumer items, like toys and plastic bottles, are also part of the problem. In 2015 a Texas A&M University research team was taking samples from a 77-pound olive ridley sea turtle and found a 4-inch plastic drinking straw completely embedded in its nose, potentially making it harder for the turtle to breathe and smell—and thus to find food. Video footage of these researchers removing the straw from the turtle's nostril, which has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J2qdOrW44&has_verified=1" target="_blank">viewed online more than 10 million times</a>, offers convincing evidence of how much suffering plastic trash can inflict on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a>.
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<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1e1fccb79317dc2212db9db8a14ce04d"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i61UrnhMhtU?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
</p><p><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/overfishing">Overfishing</a> also threatens sea turtles and other non-target animals, such as marine mammals and seabirds. Researchers believe that fishing pressure in the Pacific Ocean is the primary cause of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/ES12-00348.1" target="_blank">recent collapse</a> of the leatherback sea turtle (<em>Dermochelys coriacea</em>) population in the eastern Pacific, and now threatens the dwindling western Pacific leatherback.<br></p><p>
<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">Climate change</a> is triggering changes in ocean temperature, chemistry, circulation and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea levels</a>. These shifts also threaten sea turtles, but there is little quantitative research so far on how they will affect any species.
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The world's oceans are changing at an unprecedented pace, and scientists' methods for assessing sea turtle populations must evolve rapidly too. We need new research tools for observing ocean conditions above and beneath the surface, as well as robust population models that incorporate these new threats, to manage these globally protected species.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="dca9f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="TAXOG81576663429"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="950898827602661377" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Great Barrier Reef: 99% of These Sea Turtles Are Turning Female https://t.co/4elfgvR3kI @HealTheBay @Seasaver @savingoceans</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/950898827602661377">1515546922.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/beaches-are-becoming-safer-for-baby-sea-turtles-but-threats-await-them-in-the-ocean-92719" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em><br></p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92719/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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