Government, academic, and private groups continue to debate the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, both in terms of its immediate effects on wildlife and seafood safety, and as to its long-term environmental, economic, and human health impacts.
In a recent press briefing (transcript, audio), National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen attempted to allay fears over the safety of seafood now eligible for harvesting from reopened commercial fishing zones in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, who also participated in the briefing, agreed, asserting that "the seafood that is coming out of the Gulf in [the open] areas is highly tested and is safe."
Yet a day earlier the National Resources Defense Council called for heightened testing of Gulf of Mexico seafood. Citing the huge amount of oil that remains in the Gulf, the environmental group sent letters, co-signed by various Gulf-based community, environmental, and religious groups, to the FDA and NOAA requesting that the agencies:
- ensure there is comprehensive monitoring of seafood contamination;
- ensure public disclosure of all seafood monitoring data and methods; and
- ensure that fishery re-opening criteria protect the most vulnerable populations including children, pregnant women, and subsistence fishing communities.
Such concerns over seafood safety have meant, according to media reports, that many in the commercial fishing industry are having difficulty marketing seafood currently being harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, despite the government's attempts to alleviate concerns.
Worry over the oil spill's long-term impact on seafood and the Gulf environment in general may be warranted. Three scientific reports apparently confirm the persistence of the Gulf oil plume, in contrast to the federal government's recent statements that as much as three-quarters of the oil was quickly breaking down and had dissipated or otherwise been removed from the environment.
A team of researchers led by Dr. Richard Camilli, of the Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution's Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, report in the journal Science that a continuous plume of oil over 21 miles in length persisted at a depth of some 3,600 feet without substantial biodegradation. This jibed with the results of recent studies by researchers at theUniversity of Georgia and the University of South Florida. The University of Georgia researchers were among the earliest to report the existence of the plume studied by Dr. Camilli's group. The University of South Florida team reported discovering oil scattered in sediment along the seafloor and within the Gulf of Mexico's water column.
Meanwhile, in a commentary article set for publication in the September 8 Journal of the American Medical Association, two physician-researchers discuss effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on human health, noting both immediate and potential long-term health risks, some of which could be anticipated in light of the health effects from historic oil spills.
What such increasingly in-depth scientific studies make evident is that, despite the best efforts of hard-working disaster responders, the long-term results of the oil spill will be complex and likely grim, some resolving in the near term, while others linger potentially for years. The studies thus may predict Deepwater Horizon's legacy of environmental and human damage.
