Monday, 14 June 2010
Brief History of the First Exploitation Company - aka BP
The Guardian has a nice short article on the rise and fall of BP.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Survey of Barataria Bay - May 23
Yesterday the Louisiana Bayoukeepers, which are comprised of the husband and wife team of Tracy Kuhns and Mike Roberts, invited me for a survey of Barataria Bay. This is an important part of the regional fishery where many shrimpers, crab trappers and fishermen, including Mike, make a living. The day before a restrictive fishing ban on recreational and commercial fishing had been imposed on the region - greatly affecting a regional economy and culture completely reliant on the fishery. Below is a map showing some waypoints of our survey.
View Barataria Bay Survey May 23 2010 in a larger map
As soon as I arrived to Tracy's house from Baton Rouge, where I am staying with the Lower Mississippi Riverkeepers (LMRK), it was obvious that the new ban had really affected Tracy and Mike, as well as everyone else who works the waters, which backs up right into their back yard. Here is a small clip from before we left showing Mike's boat and a brief interview with Scott, Tracy's grandson - who's life ambition is to be a charter fisherman. Please accept my apologies for my poor videography skills and unsteady hand.
After leaving we stopped by Joe's Charter Fishing and marina and everyone was talking about was the spill, the fishing ban and what they are going to do. Many of the fishermen had signed up to lay boom for BP and were heading out to Barataria Bay, which is about 17 miles south of Mike and Tracy's house in Barataria, LA. While speeding down the channel all you see are fishing boats, seafood processing areas, guide services and oil and gas equipment.
This area is completely reliant on oil and fishing - but the culture of the area is all about fishing. Most of the locals around here do a mix of shrimping, crabbing, fishing and charters. However, in recent years many people have began retiring and purchasing second homes in the area. Although some moved out after Katrina it's really hard to turn away from this place and as an outsider I cannot understate how attractive the quality of life is here. Even though they were hammered by Katrina, Mike and Tracy are committed to staying here and are still in the process of rebuilding portions of their home affected by the hurricane.
Soon after entering Barataria Bay, about 10 miles behind the barrier islands bordering the Gulf, we first sighted oil. We could see a very fine sheen and clumps of emulsified oil were observed throughout an area. The smell of crude was noticeable but not overwhelming. This is an area Mike shrimped for much of his life - catching in one day as much as 4,000 pounds of shrimp. The day before he had heard from other fishermen oil was observed about 3/4 of a mile closer to the Gulf and it was obvious the tide was dragging it inland. The thought of oil making it further up the channel and the persistent impacts was emotional for both Mike and Tracy.
About two miles closer to the Gulf we could see a group of shrimp boats dragging boom. These boats drag the yellow, non-absorbent boom behind them attached to points typically used to tether shrimp nets to their boats. Within the boom sometimes you will find absorbent boom. We came across a friend of Mike and Tracy's who had apparently been working for 14 days straight closer to the spill site. I have a fair amount of footage with this guy but didn't want to include anything that would identify him since he's in contract with BP and subject to non-disclosure.
He said they pick up about 80 trash bags full of absorbent material as it gets saturated with oil. What we're seeing there though is nothing compared to out in the open sea. Apparently you can drive for 40 miles and never leave an oil slick. This is supported by maps just posted this morning by John Wathen, which were not intended for public distribution by BP. He wasn't optimistic they are doing anything but at least he was working. This guy also happens to be a Bayoukeeper member and said his wife was relaying the useful e-alerts Tracy had been sending out about monitoring and safety.
Tracy asked her friend if he had sufficient safety equipment and while provided with some by BP he had no respirators on board. Luckily Tracy had a few on board, which were provided by Lower Mississippi River Keeper (LMRK) and Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and purchased with money provided by the Gulf Coast Fund. After Hurricane Katrina LEAN stepped outside its traditional environmental focus to fill a gap in health and safety measures - giving clean up crews respirators and other safety equipment. Since the spill LEAN and LMRK have requested and handed out about 100 respirators to fishermen who may come in contact with thick crude.
In addition to safety equipment, Gulf Region Waterkeepers, with assistance from the Waterkeeper Alliance, have received about 100 Flip video cameras and GPS units to assist in documentation efforts. The fisherman we talked to said it would be great if he could get one of the video cameras to show what's going on out in the Gulf - since it's worse than anything we can see near the shore. He indicated we'd have to make it really easy for him to transfer the images and sounded like he wouldn't be too comfortable with uploading video to the internet and would prefer something he could just drop off somewhere. It was great to hear he really wanted to get the word out and do whatever he could to help Tracy and Mike communicate with the public. Tracy and Mike hold a lot of respect in this area and without their close connection to the people it would be impossible to develop these partnerships.
We then moved closer to the Gulf towards Grand Isle - a island which is one of a few along Louisiana's porous coastline that is accessible by car. Over the last few days the media has flocked here to show the wave of emulsified oil that came ashore. BP and local officials have been frantically trying to clean the area up and show to the media the efforts underway to clean up the beaches. At every low tide workers rake and shovel up all contaminated sand and complex booms have been constructed in attempts to contain the contaminants.
Cynically, we thought that the uninhabited areas that are accessible only by boat were not receiving similar attention so we headed to the Bay of Dispute, about 6 miles east of Grand Isle to document impacts. We noticed at first that while boom was washed ashore and not achieving any effect, not much oil was observed. Small droplets of emulsified oil were dotting the shoreline and emulsified oil mixed with sand had created what from a distance appeared to be pleasant rust colored pebbles.
As we walked along the shore to areas directly facing the Gulf the picture changed. Large patches of thick sludge, which is emulsified oil, appeared all along the shoreline up to the high tide mark. At first I assumed these were the result of dispersant being used to break up the oil but apparently this is what oil turns into as it weathers and undergoes emulsification.
We spoke with a backhoe operator who had been working on site for over a year doing a coastal restoration project to combat the loss of wetlands in the area. In the last day he had been directed to create a large berm above the high water mark to prevent inundation of oil into sensitive habitat - yet this seemed to be an entire waste of time given the distance to the habitat and the fact that if a significant storm surge came in the sand would be washed away.
I wanted to inspect a small back-bay area where the shore was protected by wave action to see if oil was settling there. Unfortunately, this was the case and here is a video showing how oil is not only washing on to shore but is also settling to the bottom of areas receiving minimal wave action and disturbance. Throughout this area are hundreds of terns and brown pelicans, which were walking among the emulsified oil but there were no signs of oil on any of the birds we saw.
On the way back to the boat we observed some more boom which had washed up to shore and allowing emulsified oil to coat the shoreline, which is covered with oyster and clam shell.
Unfortunately, it appears all clean up efforts have been focused on areas readily accessible to the media and public while areas only accessible by boat continue to receive oil. This island is representative of hundreds of small islands along the Louisiana coastline which feature sensitive habitat already subject to wetland loss due to land subsidence and sea level rise.
I have learned here that one football sized portion of wetlands are lost every 36 to 40 minutes. This has long been blamed on general land subsidence and lack of sediment input due to hydro-modification of the Mississippi River and its watershed. However, recent research suggests the level of subsidence is directly proportional to the volume of oil extracted from below the wetlands and hydro-modification cannot explain the extent to which wetlands are being lost. During the several trips I've taken out with Mike, Tracy and Paul Orr of LMRK they frequently remind me of an island that used to be here or how narrow a vast channel used to be. A great majority of the impacts to the Louisiana marshes can be attributed to the Army Corps of Engineers and the oil industry which have forever modified the form and function of these wetlands. Regardless, the culture here which is completely linked to fishing and the ecology of the area has thrived and I imagine it will make it through this.
View Barataria Bay Survey May 23 2010 in a larger map
As soon as I arrived to Tracy's house from Baton Rouge, where I am staying with the Lower Mississippi Riverkeepers (LMRK), it was obvious that the new ban had really affected Tracy and Mike, as well as everyone else who works the waters, which backs up right into their back yard. Here is a small clip from before we left showing Mike's boat and a brief interview with Scott, Tracy's grandson - who's life ambition is to be a charter fisherman. Please accept my apologies for my poor videography skills and unsteady hand.
After leaving we stopped by Joe's Charter Fishing and marina and everyone was talking about was the spill, the fishing ban and what they are going to do. Many of the fishermen had signed up to lay boom for BP and were heading out to Barataria Bay, which is about 17 miles south of Mike and Tracy's house in Barataria, LA. While speeding down the channel all you see are fishing boats, seafood processing areas, guide services and oil and gas equipment.
This area is completely reliant on oil and fishing - but the culture of the area is all about fishing. Most of the locals around here do a mix of shrimping, crabbing, fishing and charters. However, in recent years many people have began retiring and purchasing second homes in the area. Although some moved out after Katrina it's really hard to turn away from this place and as an outsider I cannot understate how attractive the quality of life is here. Even though they were hammered by Katrina, Mike and Tracy are committed to staying here and are still in the process of rebuilding portions of their home affected by the hurricane.
Soon after entering Barataria Bay, about 10 miles behind the barrier islands bordering the Gulf, we first sighted oil. We could see a very fine sheen and clumps of emulsified oil were observed throughout an area. The smell of crude was noticeable but not overwhelming. This is an area Mike shrimped for much of his life - catching in one day as much as 4,000 pounds of shrimp. The day before he had heard from other fishermen oil was observed about 3/4 of a mile closer to the Gulf and it was obvious the tide was dragging it inland. The thought of oil making it further up the channel and the persistent impacts was emotional for both Mike and Tracy.
About two miles closer to the Gulf we could see a group of shrimp boats dragging boom. These boats drag the yellow, non-absorbent boom behind them attached to points typically used to tether shrimp nets to their boats. Within the boom sometimes you will find absorbent boom. We came across a friend of Mike and Tracy's who had apparently been working for 14 days straight closer to the spill site. I have a fair amount of footage with this guy but didn't want to include anything that would identify him since he's in contract with BP and subject to non-disclosure.
He said they pick up about 80 trash bags full of absorbent material as it gets saturated with oil. What we're seeing there though is nothing compared to out in the open sea. Apparently you can drive for 40 miles and never leave an oil slick. This is supported by maps just posted this morning by John Wathen, which were not intended for public distribution by BP. He wasn't optimistic they are doing anything but at least he was working. This guy also happens to be a Bayoukeeper member and said his wife was relaying the useful e-alerts Tracy had been sending out about monitoring and safety.
Tracy asked her friend if he had sufficient safety equipment and while provided with some by BP he had no respirators on board. Luckily Tracy had a few on board, which were provided by Lower Mississippi River Keeper (LMRK) and Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and purchased with money provided by the Gulf Coast Fund. After Hurricane Katrina LEAN stepped outside its traditional environmental focus to fill a gap in health and safety measures - giving clean up crews respirators and other safety equipment. Since the spill LEAN and LMRK have requested and handed out about 100 respirators to fishermen who may come in contact with thick crude.
In addition to safety equipment, Gulf Region Waterkeepers, with assistance from the Waterkeeper Alliance, have received about 100 Flip video cameras and GPS units to assist in documentation efforts. The fisherman we talked to said it would be great if he could get one of the video cameras to show what's going on out in the Gulf - since it's worse than anything we can see near the shore. He indicated we'd have to make it really easy for him to transfer the images and sounded like he wouldn't be too comfortable with uploading video to the internet and would prefer something he could just drop off somewhere. It was great to hear he really wanted to get the word out and do whatever he could to help Tracy and Mike communicate with the public. Tracy and Mike hold a lot of respect in this area and without their close connection to the people it would be impossible to develop these partnerships.
We then moved closer to the Gulf towards Grand Isle - a island which is one of a few along Louisiana's porous coastline that is accessible by car. Over the last few days the media has flocked here to show the wave of emulsified oil that came ashore. BP and local officials have been frantically trying to clean the area up and show to the media the efforts underway to clean up the beaches. At every low tide workers rake and shovel up all contaminated sand and complex booms have been constructed in attempts to contain the contaminants.
Cynically, we thought that the uninhabited areas that are accessible only by boat were not receiving similar attention so we headed to the Bay of Dispute, about 6 miles east of Grand Isle to document impacts. We noticed at first that while boom was washed ashore and not achieving any effect, not much oil was observed. Small droplets of emulsified oil were dotting the shoreline and emulsified oil mixed with sand had created what from a distance appeared to be pleasant rust colored pebbles.
As we walked along the shore to areas directly facing the Gulf the picture changed. Large patches of thick sludge, which is emulsified oil, appeared all along the shoreline up to the high tide mark. At first I assumed these were the result of dispersant being used to break up the oil but apparently this is what oil turns into as it weathers and undergoes emulsification.
We spoke with a backhoe operator who had been working on site for over a year doing a coastal restoration project to combat the loss of wetlands in the area. In the last day he had been directed to create a large berm above the high water mark to prevent inundation of oil into sensitive habitat - yet this seemed to be an entire waste of time given the distance to the habitat and the fact that if a significant storm surge came in the sand would be washed away.
I wanted to inspect a small back-bay area where the shore was protected by wave action to see if oil was settling there. Unfortunately, this was the case and here is a video showing how oil is not only washing on to shore but is also settling to the bottom of areas receiving minimal wave action and disturbance. Throughout this area are hundreds of terns and brown pelicans, which were walking among the emulsified oil but there were no signs of oil on any of the birds we saw.
On the way back to the boat we observed some more boom which had washed up to shore and allowing emulsified oil to coat the shoreline, which is covered with oyster and clam shell.
Unfortunately, it appears all clean up efforts have been focused on areas readily accessible to the media and public while areas only accessible by boat continue to receive oil. This island is representative of hundreds of small islands along the Louisiana coastline which feature sensitive habitat already subject to wetland loss due to land subsidence and sea level rise.
I have learned here that one football sized portion of wetlands are lost every 36 to 40 minutes. This has long been blamed on general land subsidence and lack of sediment input due to hydro-modification of the Mississippi River and its watershed. However, recent research suggests the level of subsidence is directly proportional to the volume of oil extracted from below the wetlands and hydro-modification cannot explain the extent to which wetlands are being lost. During the several trips I've taken out with Mike, Tracy and Paul Orr of LMRK they frequently remind me of an island that used to be here or how narrow a vast channel used to be. A great majority of the impacts to the Louisiana marshes can be attributed to the Army Corps of Engineers and the oil industry which have forever modified the form and function of these wetlands. Regardless, the culture here which is completely linked to fishing and the ecology of the area has thrived and I imagine it will make it through this.
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