NCMC CHALLENGES USE OF CHEMICAL DISPERSANTS
ON GULF OIL SPILL

Image: NASA

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of dispersants have been used to break up the oil into tiny particles in the hopes that coastal beaches and wetlands will be spared. But “(t)he use of dispersants in such deep water, and the type of chemicals being used, could be a triple-whammy for the gulf ecosystem, making a bad situation even worse,” warned Hinman. “According to the research we’ve seen, the chemicals being applied by BP are among the most toxic to marine life, the oil itself becomes more toxic after being treated, and the resulting oil droplets are of a size that is more easily ingested by creatures low on the food chain, most notably filter feeders, including gulf menhaden, and fish larvae.”

The threat of oil and chemicals spreading throughout the gulf is especially worrisome for the future of the endangered bluefin tuna. The northern gulf is the bluefin’s only known spawning ground in the western Atlantic, and the unrelenting release of oil – as much as 70,000 gallons a day, by one estimate – from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig is happening right in the middle of spawning season (March through June). Under urging from NCMC, NOAA just last year designated the northern gulf a Habitat Area of Particular Concern because of its critical importance as a bluefin breeding ground. “We don’t know what impact this will all have on bluefin larvae and the 2010 year-class of tuna, but it can’t be good,” says Hinman.

Noting that protecting coastal wetlands is critical, and that trade-offs will have to be made, NCMC nevertheless urged Schwaab and his agency to stand tall as advocates for fish and fishermen as the Administration makes decisions on the use of chemical dispersants. “We know there are those in the industry, and in Washington, who want this problem to go out of sight, out of mind, and rash decisions about the use of dispersants can be made to get the surface slicks off the evening news,” says Hinman. “But pushing the problem below the surface and spreading it throughout the gulf could contaminate more fish and more fisheries while making the damage much harder to measure.”

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