The following posts about the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have been moved over from Scuttlebutt, the Bridge’s email discussion list.

NMEA HELP OIL SPILL!

Dear NMEA Friends

HELP!! Eleven men died in the explosion of the Deep Water Horizon. Oil has been gushing for 46 days! How many gallons? No one really knows!
We are dealing with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico along our southern coasts and this disaster is devastating our pristine ecosystems, our economy, and our way of life!  We are truly helpless in this manmade tragedy and at the mercy of BP!  The oil coming ashore, sinking to the bottom, chemically dispersed across the waves and being swirled in underwater plumes will only escalate with tropical depressions and hurricanes of categories 1-5 that with certainty will form during this time of year! The National Marine Education Association is THE national organization whose mission is to “Make Known the World of Water.” We are facing a tragic transformation to where this statement will have to include, “Make Known the World of Water, and Oil, and Shore Birds Covered in Oil, and Fish with Oily Gills and Dolphin Blowholes Filled with Oil.”
The Gulf of Mexico is a special place, just like all the coastlines and oceans you are familiar with in your region and promote in your NMEA chapters, advance their understanding and adamantly protect!
NMEA should take a leadership role!  As individuals our progress is slow but as an organization with expertise for over 35 years with connections all over the world we have the power of experience and the internet to share information, demand answers, and solutions now!
Suggestions:
Our NMEA website should immediately be posting information related to this disaster so our members are informed and have a central location to go to for additional links.
I created a blog where kids could ask questions related to the oil spill, http://blogs.bcbe.org/oil/ but it is not enough and my knowledge is limited.
Lessons Plans/Activities should be grouped for students and teachers and broken into categories by grade levels and topics such as Oil and Water, Energy, Chemical dispersants, Submersibles, ROVs, Oil and Wildlife, Meteorology, Ocean Currents, Hurricanes, Wetlands & Oil, Beaches and Oils, Engineering, Marine Biology, Marine Mammals, Coral Reefs & Oil, Chemistry, Underwater Technology, Coastal Engineering, etc. I am sure you can think of more!
Past NMEA presidents please share your comments, suggestions, and practical ideas from your broad knowledge! Post these on the website.
Please get involved NOW and start demanding attention to this unprecedented calamity by connecting to any and all organizations in your state, region and country across the world that promote stewardship of our oceans and the diversity of life.

The explosion took place on Monday, April 20, 2010 off the coast of Louisiana and on Wednesday morning in coastal Alabama a student arrived at school with tears welling in her eyes asking, “But what will happen to the dolphins when they get in the oil?”   She is in first grade, is passionate about dolphins in Mobile Bay, an intense learner in the Pelican’s Nest Science Lab, and her teacher could not answer.

Submitted by Charlene Dindo,

THE FORGOTTEN SEA

I need to let all fellow NMEA educators know how devastating the spill in our backyard really is.  I have been a member of NMEA for 35 years and a past-president.  Historically those of us that live and teach along the Gulf of Mexico know that the gulf has been the forgotten sea.
Forgotten by funding agencies, forgotten by regulators, forgotten by bureaucrats, but not anymore.  The Gulf is now known world-wide, not for its beauty, not for is quiet way of life, and not for the production of sea food that is eaten all over this country but because it is becoming black.  As a marine scientist that has on-going research and as an educator my way of life has changed and I will never see it the same again in my lifetime, perhaps even  for the lifetime of our children.
This should never have happened, the federal agency that sells the leases to the oil and gas industry was also the watchdog agency, turning  a blind eye to the requirement for multiple redundant systems.
> From the day this incident started our government has let British
Petroleum run the entire operation, from dealing with the blow out on
the bottom to controlling oiled  wildlife, they are in charge.  It has been made clear to all of us that they are the ones with the tools to work at 5,000 feet, obviously not well, but they have the equipment, but why has our government let them run the entire surface and land operations.  Why use a dispersant that is as toxic if not more toxic than the oil and let them spray it not at the surface but at 5,000 feet
down. This product had never been tested at 5,000 feet nor at 4 degrees centigrade the temperature of the ocean at that depth. The EPA and BP are suggesting that microbial action will work on the sunken oil, but this has never been tested either.  Why not let it rise to the surface where skimmers can see it, and you can see it also, because “out of site, out of mind”.  All of you around the nation and the world would be screaming for federal takeover of this disaster if you could see how vast it really is.  Our local Washington representatives have been demanding more action from the beginning but have limited support from other state leaders.  This is about to change, the oil in the Gulf is now reaching the beaches of Destin Florida and moving eastward and south.  At some point it will be near Key West and caught in the Gulf Stream and all of you that enjoy the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream will experience what we have been feeling for 46 days.  At that point I suspect that outrage from East coast senators and congressman will be echoing out of both chambers, by then it will be August, the relief wells will have been drilled and our Gulf of Mexico will be the “Dead Sea”.

Submitted by Dr. John Dindo, Dauphin Island Sea Lab

Re: NMEA HELP OIL SPILL!

4 June 2010 Good day, fellow NMEA members…
…and, thanks, Charlene, for your words.

As we seek to empower the youth of today, with full expectation that they will have the focus, determination, knowledge, concern and expertise to commit to solving the world’s great challenges in the 21st century (including massive oil spills, oceanic dead zones, and plastic waste), we do need to seize this opportunity to promote awareness, critical thinking and problem-solving skills with our students.  Setting up a ‘lesson activity’ link on the NMEA home page would be (and should be) the resource that would help all noble educators best address this human tragedy and major environmental catastrophe!
Gary
(Sidenote:  I am currently writing a song or two related to the spill, which I will share at the conference in Gatlinburg this summer)

Submitted by Gary Bowman

NOT HELPLESS WITH DISASTERS

Discussions with the public, kids of all ages, about the oil spill seem to have a common theme, “I feel helpless.” Feeling empowered in the middle of a disaster is critical, so the Conservation Committee wanted to share ideas with NMEA that you can in turn share with anyone expressing feelings of helplessness!

Direct:

1)      If you live near or can get to a Gulf area, or a government or non-profit organization’s office that is helping respond to the oil spill, volunteer your time to help out.

2)      If you can afford to, donate money and/or resources to your favorite non-profit that is helping to respond.

Indirect & just as important:

3)      REDUCE is the most important “R” in conservation. Reduce your use of oil. Ultimately this can help prevent a spill in the future with less of it in demand being drilled, dug, pumped and transported!

a.       Walking, biking, mass-transit, carpooling…

b.      Buy local whenever possible, so products do not have to be shipped as far, especially for refrigerated or frozen products that cost more energy to ship. If you need to branch out for your favorites, buy regional and at the very least try to buy products from your Homeland.

c.       Reduce your use of plastics & Styrofoam – not only does this help with another big concern we all seem to share, but plastics (and Styrofoam) use oil product in their manufacture.

d.      Use less electricity as most power plants still use some oil among other resources to produce energy, saves you $ too!

e.      Purchase low energy-use products whenever you can, saves you $ too!

f.        Try to avoid buying products, such as some cosmetics, that use “petrolatum” or other byproducts of oil.

g.       Invest in renewable energy and/or low energy-use products.

4)      Scientists are starting to share concerns over more intensified climactic reaction as a result of the spill, such as more frequent and intense hurricanes. Most of our actions still will have some kind of carbon foot-print, but there are many organizations that offer the service of carbon off-setting you can invest in, including this one created by two NMEA members! www.wildcarbon.com (Feel free to share others you know of.)

5)      Learn More… real power lies in education. Below is a collection of links to help you find out current events at the Gulf, organizations working on the front lines, and the stories and images to keep you informed.

• OR&R Deepwater Horizon page (main NOAA page)
• NOS Deepwater Horizon page

• Thank You Ocean Podcasts

• Deepwater Horizon Response page
• Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant
• Gulf of Mexico Alliance
• Waterkeeper Alliance
• The Ocean Conservancy
• Audubon Society
• International Bird Rescue
• National Geographic images of spill

Submitted by Amy Gollenberg, NMEA Conservation Chair

FWD: IXTOC COMPARISON

Different spill and another comparison to Gulf of Mexico.

Subject: Ixtoc comparison

http://news.discovery.com/earth/gulf-oil-spill-ixtoc.html

It took nearly 10 months to seal [with a relief well] the world’s 2nd largest spill in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche June 3 1979.
160 feet deep

Efforts such as those used to try to stop the Deepwater Horizon spill — containment domes and junk shots — were fruitless.

290 days [10.5 months] dumping around 3.3 million barrels of oil into the warm Gulf waters,
as gas belching from below fed a continuous fire on the ocean’s surface.

That fire was a good thing,” because it burned away the toxic gases

Both blowouts followed the explosion and sinking of their respective drilling rigs. In both cases the blowout preventer failed.

Despite the similarities of the Ixtoc I and Deepwater Horizon spills, there is one major difference: wetlands.

The fact that the spill happened in warm offshore waters made the effects of the Ixtoc I spill less than they otherwise might have been, experts agreed. Warm temperatures accelerate the evaporation, weathering and microbes’ consumption of oil. Much of the oil stayed offshore, evaporating or settling out on the sea floor.

What will happen in 20 years in Alaska will take five years in the Gulf

Researchers estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed by the Valdez spill.

Above is the Ixtoc I oil well blowout
after the oil platform Sedco 135 burned and sank in 1979.
Click to enlarge this image.
NOAA

Because of the dispersion, shrimp, squid, and some fish populations suffered, with fisheries hit even harder.”

The use of surface dispersants did help reduce bird kills, he said, but it took a heavier toll on small animals living in the water. Fish and octopus catches reportedly dropped by 50-70 percent that year from 1978 levels in some places

The much-reduced fishing pressure on fisheries that are normally over-fished meant that the fisheries’ recovery went quite quickly.

Some oil on beaches was bulldozed under, but long stretches of beach were left alone where the oil weathered to tar and then to asphalt

“Five years later, most of this was covered with sand,” “But where it was exposed, crabs were crawling over it and oysters and mussels were settled on it. The toxicity of it was gone.

But a tropical storm did much to reduce that damage. “It removed 80 percent of the oil that was on the shore of Texas.”

Submitted by Vicki Osis

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE SPILL COMPARED TO THE IXTOC

This one more indepth of the ecological damage caused by the oil that
lingers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/05/AR2010060503987.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

Submitted by Vicki Osis

OIL

Hi NMEA colleagues,

• contributing to gathering and dissemination of accurate information
• events and materials to promote effective education about the spill
• helping to mitigate the impacts to Gulf habitats, biological and human communities (including networking, coordination, fundraising, etc.)
• promoting understanding necessary for the public to make decisions about the future to help lessen the frequency of such disasters, or at least see how their choices may contribute for good or ill

Submitted by Bruce Stewart, One Ocean Art

06.08.10 OIL SPILL INFORMATION PAGSE UPDATE

The Oil Spill information pages have been updated 06.08.10 on gulfallianceeducation.org.

NOAA’s Office of Education Special Oil Spill page
http://www.education.noaa.gov/oilspill.html

Earth Gauge Kids – Gulf of Mexico Month
The Earth Gauge Kids theme for June, “Gulf of Mexico,” is online: www.earthgauge.net/kids. Feel free to distribute the link. The website is geared toward grades 5-8, but is a useful tool for many audiences. There is a widget available at www.earthgauge.net/kids/more, which any organization can add to its website. Though the themes (and the widget image) change monthly, the pages are archived on the site.
Also, have continued to add to our list of vetted resources for meteorologists, educators and the public at http://www.earthgauge.net/2010/gulf-oil-spill-resources.

Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant
http://gulfseagrant.tamu.edu/oilspill/index.htm
Scroll down on this page for a good listing of information related to the Exxon Valdex
For information on peer listening go to the appendix of pwsrca.org

South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (SMVOAD) http://smvoad.com/
Members of SMVOAD form a coalition of nonprofit organizations that respond to disasters as part of their overall mission. Together we foster more effective service through the four C’s—communication, coordination, cooperation and collaboration—by providing convening mechanisms and outreach for all people and organizations involved in disasters.

Sargassum video
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/gulf_oil_spill_threatens_sarga.html

Baby Otter Swimming Lessons on YouTube  (no oil) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTqV6LPl8c&feature=player_embedded

Response. Recovery. Restoration.
www.gulfallianceeducation.org Description of these steps.
www.mobilebaynep.org What local agencies are doing.

From the Grist
10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit. Through smart land use, cities, towns, and many rural areas can give residents the option of driving less — a direct way to stem the demand for offshore (and foreign) oil. Want to do something in your own community to respond to BP’s oil spill?
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-02-10-smart-ways-cities-and-towns-can-get-us-off-oil

Submitted by Lee Yokel, Gulf of Mexico Alliance