Life under GOM waters

by: dharmasyd

Tue Aug 17, 2010 at 20:58:57 PDT

Don't get me wrong though.  I am not a pollyanna rosegarden smiley face.  I'm not minimizing the disaster nor what is to come.  I found this as I was looking for more information about seafood safety, damage to the food chain, etc. in my effort to tell our food program managers not to buy from the Gulf.  So far they have ignored me, but then they are pollyanna rosegardeners, especially when they feel helplesss to do anything about it. I'll keep trying despite the fact that many have dismissed me as quite crazy and far too negative.  In my last note, I said that I didn't think any of us wanted to be subjects in experiments of the quite possible detrimental health effects of oil and dispersants in the food chain, possibly carcinogenic.

I found this in a comment posted at TOD by lotus (h/t to ya lotus) of a video by a Pensacola diver named bender (and a scuba tip to you bender, hope you stay well). Comment:

I took this video on 8/7/2010, about 9 miles SW of Pensacola. Most significant to me is the fact that the reef critters (tunicates, anemones, bivalves, sponges) are still alive. This suggests that oxygen levels haven't dropped to fatal levels, which would have happened in the presence of significant hydrocarbons (because the critters that eat oil use tons of oxygen). I did another dive further out and found less reef life, but ACRES of red snapper. I did two dives the next day at Ft. Pickens, and found life in all forms, including shoals of baitfish.

I'm not ready to eat from the Gulf though (even lobster). I'll need months of clean tests before I'll eat from the Gulf again.

See the video at this link...

Pensacola Diving (post oil spill)