The Black Bay

The huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurs at a critical time in terms of the breeding of migratory birds in the Gulf of Mexico. It is possible that there will be harm here for generations, whatever it is

The drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded has caused the flow of a thousand cubic meters of crude oil per day and forecasts are that the flow will increase.

The "failure" is defined as a disaster on a huge scale, much bigger than "Exxon Wolds" off the coast of Alaska, even if the flow is stopped before the quantities reach the amount of oil spilled from the tanker in the north, the damage will be much greater.

The reasons for the magnitude of the disaster are: the flow in a closed bay, seemingly better and easier to control, but in the bay there is a "looping" current that flows around the bay, a current that "with the help" of the winds will spread the pollution. Add to that the fact that the Gulf shores are low and flat. Around the mouths of rivers that create huge alluvial fans, fans that are characterized by swamps and wet areas.
That is: unlike on the coast of Alaska where the oil reached rocky shores and stopped, the oil will spread over tens of thousands of square kilometers of vegetation in shallow water, a situation where it is impossible to clean and remove the oil stains.

The marshes, the fans, the wet areas and the mouths of the rivers constitute a living area for a vast and abundant biological diversity, including waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, reptiles, marine and terrestrial mammals. They all exist in huge waterscapes (wetlands) that will most likely be covered in the oily liquid that will destroy... everything.

In another era we would have said that after a while nature will prove its resilience and within a number of years life will be renewed, but the disaster happens at the most sensitive time, a time when many migratory species stop in the area to rest and "refuel", the nesting period of most of the local birds, a time when deer Sea to spawn on the beaches, a period when many species of fish come to the shallow waters to engage in reproduction and spawning, that is, the "black gold" will eliminate at once the generation of the parents who will starve because of the pollution or drown in oil, together with the parents the next generation will die. In one, a huge population of everyone who lives (to this day) in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico will be destroyed, the oil that will cover the vegetation will eliminate the leaves, the vegetation will be destroyed.

Bodies of water / wetlands without vegetation will become large lakes, which means the loss of the wetlands, so that in the best case the natural regeneration will last at least three generations even then in a limited population that will doubtless be able to return to a natural state. That is, damage to the supply of drinking water.

In the meantime, the fishing season in the Gulf is entering, blue crabs, oysters and shrimps make up the bulk of the spoils, the fishermen are already unemployed today as it is impossible to go fishing in the oily sea. The main occupation in the current period should be trawl fishing, trawls are considered a delicacy... not when they are seasoned with oil. The environmental destruction means that fishing in the bay will not resume in the coming years either. An important part of the residents' economy is tourism, tourists will not come to wade in oil.

The (immediate economic) damage to the residents to date is estimated at 15 billion dollars, this without calculating the damage to the natural environment and without calculating the long-term damage that will be caused to the environment and its (human) inhabitants.

The heads of the responsible company - British Petroleum - say that they will do everything to repair the environmental damage and compensate the sufferers. It is assumed that a way will be found to compensate (at least partially) the human inhabitants, how will the natural environment be distributed and how will it be restored?

As part of the attempts to save the humid (terrestrial) environment: swamps, river mouths, beaches, etc. are engaged in attempts to stop the flow of oil by various means, so far without success, deploy hundreds of kilometers of sleeves that are supposed to limit the spread of the black spot, pump and remove the oil (collect),

But in the meantime, winds are blowing that reduce the effectiveness of the barriers, winds that scatter the single spot into many spots and drive the oil eastward. Above all, the hopes depend on the mixture of separating agents "detergents" (similar to dishwashing soap) that are supposed to break the oil into tiny pieces, where the hope is that some of those pieces of oil will sink to the bottom and some will evaporate.

Detergents have been used in a number of cases where there were small stains, they have never tried to treat a huge stain in this way. In the first step, the substance is injected into the sources of the leak, and in the next step, planes will spray the stains. The prospect of removing the oil using the detergent does not neutralize the environmental risk. It is not clear how thousands of tons of oil that will be deposited at the bottom of the gulf will affect the diversity of flora and fauna on the bottom. In the next step, nature is supposed to handle the oil fragments... bacteria that eat oil, but the bacteria are eaten by zooplankton and phytoplankton. The bacteria are toxic, those who feed on plankton... will get hurt!

Although according to the American Health Organization "the detergent is of low toxicity to humans" it is known to accumulate in the tissues of anyone who will be around, what will this concentration cause? How will this affect the food chain?

And again, according to the American Health Organization, "high concentrations of detergent ingredients may be carcinogenic"! So maybe there will be a partial success in preventing the oil from polluting the beaches, at what cost to the marine environment? So what will the sages benefit from their regulation?