The Ocean Blog
The Gulf Oil Spill: Send in Your Questions
Boats trying to control the fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 21, 2010.
With the nuclear and humanitarian crisis in Japan, major political changes in North Africa and the Middle East, and heated budget battles here in the United States, you'd be forgiven for not remembering that nearly one year ago the Gulf of Mexico was dominating the news.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 people and opening up a well that pumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
One year later, where do things stand?
Join us next week as we seek answers from a panel of experts in a Live Webcast on Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 6:30pm (EDT) from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Do you have questions about the status of wildlife and ecosystems, seafood, and where the oil went? Post them below and we'll forward to the panel. Please include your name and location. Tune in to hear the answers.
The panelists will include a veterinarian, a fisheries expert, a chemical oceanographer and an environmental engineer with an expertise on oil spill remediation. They'll discuss everything from performing triage on oil-covered birds to explaining where the crude went.
Dr. Nancy Knowlton, the Smithsonian’s Sant Chair for Marine Science and author of Citizens of the Sea, will moderate the conversation.
Want to do some more reading before sending in your questions? Here are some interesting places to start:
- "Gulf's Complexity and Resilience Seen in Studies of Oil Spill," by Leslie Kaufman of The New York Times
- Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling. Report to the President, by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
- The Fish & Wildlife section of the official U.S. website RestoreTheGulf.gov
- Gulf Coast oil spill background on the Ocean Portal
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I hope we can clean up the
I hope we can clean up the oil
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 2:10pm.didn't that already happen
didn't that already happen
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/07/2012 - 6:05pm.There have been seemingly
There have been seemingly endless calls for "making sure nothing like this happens again" and accomplishing this ensuring that there are dramatic increases in response capabilities, both at the surface and at the challenging depths where drilling occurs. And there has also been a community of research scientists lamenting the limited availability of manned and unmanned craft which can readily access the depths to study the effects of the spill from the Macondo Prospect, or even doing simple background research before another event occurs in the future.
We need to combine these two concepts and use logic to drive a call for a discussion on the use of technologies which are very limited in their supply.
Do we want to develop large cashes of response equipment on perpetual standby, or should we call for a fleet of dual-use craft that could be used for major leaps forward in scientific study while also serve as emergency response technology in the case of accidents? A realistic view of resources, especially in this economy, says we can't have a robust deep sea scientific program and also a robust set of emergency response deep sea craft that sits idle. Why not develop a program that maximizes day-to-day benefits for America through exploration and scientific study and also serves as the greatly improved deep sea response team that could be mobilized to address future undersea accidents?
And if you are looking at the government sector as a way to enhance the private sector (or as a guarantee that America's assets are protected no matter how private sector interests react with their response), why not dramatically increase the oil spill and deep sea recon and salvage capabilities of the Navy's office of the Supervisor of Salvage? We need those assets in our DoD portfolio as well - why not expand on the capabilities already there through a substantial increase in investment in Navy technologies, and when we do, make sure that the assets serve civilian needs when the military mission allows for their multiple use? We have a track record of success as the basis for civ-mil cooperation - think of the Navy's NR-1 submarine and the civilian applications it also served. Why isn't this approach being considered for the gulf?
-William Nuckols, Ocean Policy Expert and Government Efficiency Advocate
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 5:34pm.We in AL are told everything
We in AL are told everything is back to normal and it looks good on the surface, What are the long-term effects for the ocean's ecosystems?
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 4:06pm.Tx
¿is there studies about the
¿is there studies about the damage in sea vegetation? cuz sea vegetation represent the biggest amount of oxygen for the gulf and for us.
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 3:56pm.¿what can we expect about that in the future? our sea vegetation its really fragile.
¿is BP still working in USA shores? ¿it is still working at some other country?
In terms of the toll on human
In terms of the toll on human beings, can you discuss the composite/synergistic effects of oil vapor ingestion, combined with inhalation of Corexit on nervous systems already compromised by traumatic stress?
It seems the diagnosis of the effects of these things are always written off because they are taken individually, as if Corexit exposure happens independently of many other factors.
The long term effects on the health of human beings along with ecosystems have many agents acting on them. The frustrating, and frankly insulting, response by most agencies involved is to address the effects of individual causal agents independently of all others. This seems not only narrow minded and myopic, but suspect.
One cannot deny that many of the agencies in charge of investing the effects are themselves effected by substantial investments of corporate and governmental interests who have much to gain from positive "spin".
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 1:56pm.Gas prices keep going higher,
Gas prices keep going higher, by this summer they say we the people will be paying at least $5.00 a gallon. Is this because you are really trying to get the American Citizen's to pay for your mess that yall have made? For most of us belive it will take years, upon years for us to really know how bad this was! Submitted by Anonymous on Sunday 4/17/2011-11:32
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 12:33pm.will we ever be able to clean
will we ever be able to clean up all the oil?
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 2:46pm.Why do we continue to drill
Why do we continue to drill off shore, if there's no guarantee that marine life will not be harmed?
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 2:24pm.what steps have you taken to
what steps have you taken to ensure nothing similar can happen in the future?
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 12:28pm.