Scientists: Up to 80% of Gulf Oil Remains

(CBS/AP)  Georgia scientists say their analysis shows that most of that BP oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there.

The scientists say as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface. The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone. The report from University of Georgia and other scientists came from an analysis of federal estimates.

Earlier this month federal scientists said that only about a quarter of the oil remained and the rest was either removed, dissolved or dispersed.

"Where has all the oil gone? It hasn't gone anywhere. It still lurks in the deep," said University of Georgia marine scientist Chuck Hopkinson. He headed the quick independent look by the Georgia Sea Grant program at the estimates the White House released.

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White House energy adviser Carol Browner said on morning news shows earlier this month: "More than three-quarters of the oil is gone. The vast majority of the oil is gone."

The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved or dispersed is gone.

"The bottom line is most of it is still out there," Hopkinson told The Associated Press. "There's nothing in the report to substantiate the 26 percent."

But commercial shrimpers out for the first trip of the season since the spill indicated their catch was plentiful and free of oil.

"We're not seeing any oil where I'm at. No tar balls, nothing," said Brian Amos, a 53-year-old shrimper who trawled in his 28-foot skiff, The Rolling Thunder, in a bay near Empire.

Laboratory tests on seafood from the Gulf have shown little hazard from oil, and a test is being developed for the chemicals used to disperse the crude, though there is no evidence they build up in seafood. Still, shrimpers are worried that the public won't want what they catch.

"I feel that we have had a bad rap on the perception of our product," said Andrew Blanchard, who waited Monday for shrimp boats to arrive at his processing plant in Chauvin. Fewer arrived than normal, five versus the usual 20 on a normal opening day, but he said that was because most boats are still doing cleanup work for BP, not because of any problem with the shrimp.

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[thesevenveils]

As fine as it may look on the outside, I'm not touching Gulf of Mexico seafood of any type.

I think as a matter of public safety, a law should be passed to force sellers to label from what state their catch came from. In reality, if a seafood restaurant can't tell their customers where their fish came from, their customer should put down their menu and leave for their own safety.

[Brokennews]

Does this mean we can just toss shrimp in the frying pan & start cooking without oiling the pan?

This will be very convenience for those working Moms & Dads that don't have alot of extra time to prepare meals for the fam.

Now we just need a large oil spill in Idaho for our ready-to-go french fries!!

[Renewable216]

Check this out, the other day they had a picture of President Obama and his daughter swimming in the Florida Panhandle about 1500 miles from the gulf oil spill. The president was showing everyone how safe the water was. My question was that they should have shown President Obama and his family stop and eat some of the shrimp in New Orleans. Some of the gulf newspapers have banned me from bloging on the gulf papers as a result of this comment.

Is this comment wrong?

Fish are visible members of aquatic communities that are vulnerable to PAH contamination.Epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and cancer needs to be reviewed! You can't taste PAH and dispersants double the amount of PAH !

[sean1z]

Sludge in the Gulf of Mexico will be a source of pollution for many years to come. BP and the Federal Government will not readily admit to toxins in the sea water.

[M_Miles]

Headline of article Reads; SCIENTISTS: Up to 80% of Gulf Oil Remains

Team from Georgia Says Earlier Gov't Reports that 74% of Oil Was Gone Misinterpreted Data.

The evidence glares at you. The Government put a minus sign where there should of been a plus sign on their pie charts. Misinterpreted Data.
Been to the post office lately?

[deohgee]

Zippity do dah, zippity day,
Scientists say there's lots of oil today!
But Obammy said most had gone away,
Zippity do dah, zippity day!

[ecibu33]

I am so relieved - oil spills are really no issue at all. After all, it seems to have no effect on the envirtonment. So, I say Drill-Bay Drill no matter if there is a Spill after Spill...

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06]

We can't even get reliable estimates as to how much oil was actually leaked. I imagine it will be even harder to track down how much was actually recovered.

In any event, there's still oil lurking below the surface of the water and probably in great swaths. Also, you can disperse and dissolve oil all you want but it's still there. Just like water in fuel, you can dissolve it but it's still there.

[louiville35]

Ummm that's not true, the "Oil" can easily be digested by micro organisms. To them it's like dinner served. If you have ever been involved in in-situ bio remediation you would know that. Natural and man assisted bio remediation is used through out the world to clean up problems like this.

[nyc_logic]

louiville35, there aren't enough micro organisms on the planet to digest that much oil in such little time. So, forget that pipe dream. The federal govenment has been painfully wrong before when it comes to environmental disasters. Soon after 9/11, Christine Todd Whitman, (appointed head of EPA by Bush) said that the air quality in and around the WTC site was safe. We can all see how that is panning out for all the first responders and workers of that clean up. It's physically impossible for all of that oil to just up and vanish like a fart in the wind. So, expect for it to start washing up along gulf coast and possibly the east coast shorelines. I'm no scientist, this is just common sense, people.

[tmittelstaed]

Whatever else you believe please read this:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2010/08/gulf_coast_shrimp_swept_under.html

The writer of this article interviewed a number of shrimpers in the Gulf. ALL have said that there are BIG problems with the shrimp. What your reading in this CBS article is pure bull regarding the shrimping.

I for one would not buy shrimp from the Gulf. In fact I probably will not buy or order shrimp on any restaurant menu for at least the next couple of years. There is no way to know for certain if the supplier hasn't used Gulf shrimp.

It has been stated that Cordova AK opened ship fishing for the first time this year after the Valdez spill and that was over 20 years ago. The crab and herring industries are still dead there. Rocks still are oiled. People who think the Gulf will be any different are dreamers. Sure, they will clean the tarballs off the beaches so the tourists come back. They will be cleaning those tarballs off for another 40 years.

[theunique1]

Here is a nice story I found on the internet about BP and MI6, the British intelligence service. It just shows how they are capable of anything to further Britains personal interests. http://www.whale.to/b/hookers.html
Here is the first part.
Hookers, spies, cases full of dollars...how BP spent ?45m to win 'Wild East' oil rights

By GLEN OWEN

05/13/07 "Mail On Sunday" --- - BP executives working for Lord Browne spent millions of pounds on champagne-fuelled sex parties to help secure lucrative international oil contracts.

The company also worked with MI6 to help bring about changes in foreign governments, according to an astonishing account of life inside the oil giant.

Les Abrahams, who led BP's successful bid for a multi-million-pound deal with one of the former Soviet republics, today claims that Browne - who was forced to resign as chief executive last month after the collapse of legal proceedings against The Mail on Sunday - presided over an "anything goes" regime of sexual licence, spying and financial sweeteners.

Scroll down for more...

He also claims that Home Secretary John Reid was arrested at gunpoint on a BP-funded foreign trip for being out on the streets after a military curfew had been imposed.

Mr Abrahams tells how he spent ?45 million in expenses over just four months of negotiations with Azerbaijan's state oil company.

Armed with a no-limit company credit card, he ordered supplies of champagne and caviar to be flown on company jets into the boomtown capital, Baku, to be consumed at the "sex parties".

The hospitality continued in London, where prostitutes were hired on the BP credit card to entertain visiting Azerbaijanis.

Mr Abrahams, an engineer by training, joined BP in 1991, just as the disintegration of the Soviet Union had triggered a "new gold rush" by oil multi-nationals seeking a share of the 200 billion barrels of oil reserves beneath the Caspian Sea.

While employed by BP, Mr Abrahams says he was persuaded to work for MI6 by John Scarlett, now head of the service but then its head of station in Moscow.

He says he was passing information to Scarlett in faxes and at one-to-one meetings in the Russian capital.

He also claims that BP was working closely with MI6 at the highest levels to help it to win business in the region and influence the political complexion of governments.

Mr Abrahams worked for BP's XFI unit - Exploring Frontiers International - which specialises in opening new markets in often unstable parts of the world.

He said Lord Browne, then BP's head of exploration, allocated a budget of ?45 million to cover the first year's costs of the Baku operation.

"The order came from Browne's aides to 'get them anything they want'.

[nyc_logic]

This story is not credible since the site that you posted is a site all about these outlandish conspiracy theories, like "Hitler was a secret British agant" and "MI-6 is part of the Illuminati" (another fictitious secret society). I think you should stick to reading Dan Brown if you like that sort of stuff. As for me....I tend to like facts.