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Pensacola Clean-Up: Last Stand Against Gulf Oil Spill

Mary Ellen Klas and Jennifer Lebovich
The Miami Herald
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Walter Michot/Maimi Herald
A shrimp boat is being used as a skimmer boat just 200 yards off the Pensacola Beach.
A day after this pristine seashore was walloped with oil, most of the sticky crude was gone from its beaches -- either cleaned up, buried or swept back into the sea.

But the question remained: How could miles of gooey mess have slipped past the ocean skimmers onto the shore?

The answer: Easily.

Although state officials say there are about 20 skimming vessels working night and day straining matted and weathered oil from the sea, there are too few of them to cover much of the vast Gulf, and the effort is more art than science.

''It's almost like beating a grizzly bear with a hickory stick,'' said charter boat Capt. Paul Redman Jr., who has been battling the oil on his ''vessel of opportunity'' -- the label for private boats serving in the cleanup -- for about three weeks. ''You're going to fight till you can't fight no more. No one wants to give up.''
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Cow Skull

Pensacola Beach Covered in Oil

pcolagregg
YouTube
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:52 UTC
The beach is covered in oil tonight. I walked for two hours from near Peg Legs west about one mile past the Fort Pickens gate and saw nothing but oil everywhere and maybe a dozen clean up people half of which were working.

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Question

What is Killing Argentina's Right Whales?

Marlowe Hood
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:17 UTC
Right Whale
© AFP
A Franca Austral whale (also known as Southern Right Whale).
Agadir, Morocco - Fatal strandings of southern right whales around Argentina's Valdes Peninsula have soared in recent years, and worried scientists are not sure why, the International Whaling Commission heard Friday.

From 1971, when systematic monitoring began, only a relative handful of whale deaths were reported over the next three decades.

Starting in 2003, however, the mortality rate began to soar: from 31 that year, to 47 in 2005, 83 in 2007, 95 in 2008 and 79 last year, the IWC's scientific committee reported.

"Over 90 percent of the deaths have been of first-year calves," the scientists said.

The Valdes Peninsula is one of the most popular whalewatching venues on the planet, attracting some 200,000 eco-tourists every year hoping to see the huge mammals -- which grow up to 17-metre (56-foot) long -- in their element.

It is also a critically important breeding and nursery ground for right whales.

Three causes, possibly in combination, have been fingered as possible culprits.
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Question

Grand Cayman Island: DoE Investigate Mystery of Dead Fish


Cayman News Service
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:53 UTC
Dead Fish
© CNS
The cause of a large number of dead juvenile fish along the waterline on Seven Mile Beach is unknown, according to the Department of Environment, and appears to be confined to a single species.

The fish, which were reported to the DoE Wednesday 23 June, appeared to all be filefish fry about 2-3cm long, possibly white-spotted filefish, but because of their young stage of development the department is unable to identify the species with certainly.

"Despite the large number of dead fish observed over several miles on southern and central Seven Mile Beach we do not suspect that there is a systemic environmental problem at this time," said John Bothwell, Senior Research Officer with the Department of Environment.
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Bizarro Earth

At Least 42 Dead, 115,000 Homeless in Brazil Flooding


CNN
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:33 UTC
Image
© CNN
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met Tuesday with his emergency Cabinet as flooding in two northeastern states killed at least 42 people and left more than 115,000 homeless or displaced, the Agencia Brasil state news agency and civil defense officials reported.

In Pernambuco state, 53 cities have declared a state of emergency, the nation's civil defense agency said. Thirteen people are dead and more than 42,000 are homeless there, the agency said.

In Alagoas state, 22 cities have declared an emergency. At least 29 people are dead, officials said. More than 73,000 residents are homeless or displaced, the national civil defense said.

More than 600 people have been reported missing in Alagoas.
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Bizarro Earth

Big Algae Bloom Expanding Off China's East Coast


The Associated Press
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:24 UTC
Image
© Jianan Yu/Reuters
Green algae outbreak in 2008, in Chaolu lake in Hefei, Anhui province, endangered water supply in nearby cities and posed a great threat to aquatic life.
A huge bright green algae bloom is blanketing the sea off China's east coast and wind is driving it closer to land, an official said Friday.

Cui Wenlin, an official with the State Oceanic Administration, said the slimy bloom is the biggest China has seen since a huge outbreak in 2008 threatened to disrupt sailing events during the Beijing Summer Olympics. Before the games, thousands of soldiers, volunteers and fishing boats were recruited to clean up that bloom, which sailors took to calling "The Fairway" and "The Carpet."

The current outbreak has nearly doubled in size since it was first spotted June 14 near eastern China's Shandong province and now measures about 110 square miles (300 square kilometers), said Cui, who works at the administration's North China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center.

Winds are pushing the mass toward the resort city of Qingdao, and it was 6-12 miles (10-20 kilometers) from shore late Friday, he said.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Suspected tornado shatters largest city in Connecticut

John Christoffersen
NOLA.com
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:19 UTC
Image
© Madalyn Ruggiero, The Associated Press
The severe weather system that spawned the Connecticut winds also damaged the town hall and fire station in Edgerton, Ohio, photographed Thursday.
A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut's largest city Thursday -- a rare occurrence in the state -- toppling trees and power lines and collapsing a building in Bridgeport as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast. Remarkably, no serious injuries were reported.

Hundreds of bricks shook loose from buildings, trees split in half and crushed cars, and a billboard hung precariously several stories up over Main Street. Rescuers searched what was left of a collapsed building before determining no one was inside.

The office of Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of wind and rain.

Jacqueline Arroyo, 44, said she saw a black cloud and ran inside to her third-floor apartment, where the window exploded. Trees were blown so ferociously they appeared to be coming out of the ground, and people were screaming, she said.

"All the wind started coming inside the house. I heard 'boom, boom!'" she said. "It was so fast but terrifying."
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Bad Guys

BP Is Burning Rare Sea Turtles Alive, Blocking Efforts to Save Them

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
By now, almost everyone is aware of the out-of-control oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico that seems to be getting exponentially worse with each passing day. But what people may not know is that BP's efforts to control the oil by burning it are actually burning alive a certain rare and endangered species of sea turtle.

For several weeks now, rescue crews have been feverishly trying to save Kemp's Ridleys sea turtles, as well as four other endangered varieties, from being caught in the oil corral areas that are being intentionally burned by BP, but according to Mike Ellis, one of the boat captains involved in the project, BP has now blocked all such rescue efforts from taking place.

"They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," he explained in an interview with Catherine Craig, a conservation biologist.
      Read More...
Umbrella

Canada: Severe storm pounds Saskatchewan


CBC News
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:05 UTC
Image
© CBC
A car was almost completely submerged at a Regina underpass.
There was a break in the weather Thursday evening following an afternoon of torrential rain, hail and a possible tornado in Saskatchewan.

Environment Canada said the storm system had weakened considerably and cancelled a number of weather watches about 10 p.m. CST. It said a few thunderstorms were still possible in some areas prior to midnight, but no severe thunderstorms were expected.

Earlier Thursday, Environment Canada said Doppler radar had picked up a possible tornado near the community of Wilkie, about 160 kilometres west of Saskatoon, at about 3 p.m. CST.

A thunderstorm about 20 kilometres northeast of Wilkie was moving through the area at the time. There was no immediate confirmation available on whether a tornado had actually formed.

Severe weather hit many communities in the province Thursday afternoon, and Environment Canada issued several tornado warnings and watches throughout the day.
      Read More...
Attention

Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains

Alok Jha
The Guardian
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:40 UTC
£10m Insect Pollinators Initiative will look at the multiple reasons thought to be behind devastation of bees, moths and hoverflies

A cocktail of chemicals from pesticides could be damaging the brains of British bees, according to scientists about to embark on a study into why the populations of the insects have dropped so rapidly in recent decades. By affecting the way bees' brains work, the pesticides might be affecting the ability of bees to find food or communicate with others in their colonies.

Neuroscientists at Dundee University, Royal Holloway and University College London will investigate the hypothesis as part of a £10m research programme launched today aimed at finding ways to stop the decline in the numbers of bees and other insect pollinators in the UK.

Insects such as bees, moths and hoverflies pollinate around a third of the agricultural crops grown around the world. If all of the UK's insect pollinators were wiped out, the drop in crop production would cost the UK economy up to £440m a year, equivalent to around 13% of the UK's income from farming.
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