Much more needs to be done to lower the risks of another offshore oil disaster like the BP blowout two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, the presidential commission that investigated the disaster reported Tuesday in its first progress update.
The presidential oil spill commission disbanded after it finished its main report last year, but its seven members recently got together again to look back on whether their recommendations had been carried out. Many steps to prevent or sop up another oil blowout haven’t been taken.
“The risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar environmental conditions,” the report says. “Delays in taking the necessary precautions threaten new disasters, and their occurrence could, in turn, seriously threaten the nation’s energy security.”
Note EU-Digest: It's almost two years since BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and according to an investigative report compiled by Al Jazeera, scientists are saying that they are finding deformities among seafood and a great decline in the numbers of marine life.
Dr. Darryl Felder, a biologist who has studied crustaceans for decades, says that populations of marine life have dropped in alarming rates. "The species' richness, which means the number of different kinds of things that live there and the abundance of the individual ones that comprise the set, or the assemblage as we call it, are diminished," he said.
The United States government says that seafood is safe to eat, but some scientists say that is not the only concern that people should have. One of the most important animals in the food chain is the killifish, but according to biologist Andrew Whitehead, they are exhibiting a lower heart rate than they should, they have a lower hatching success, and their hearts are not forming properly.
The killifish is just one of the species affected. "We have some evidence of deformed shrimp, which is another developmental impact," said Scott Eustis of the Gulf Restoration Network. "That shrimp's grandmother was exposed to oil while the mother was developing, but it's' the grandchild of the shrimp that was exposed that grows up with no eyes."
For more: Experts: Another BP-style Gulf blowout all too possible - Gulf Oil Spill - MiamiHerald.com
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