I know it's a popular thing to hate the big bad oil company and I know it's popular to believe everything that ABC news publishes to be the truth but there are many things that are stated that are distinctly slanted.
The report makes it look like there is this vast devastation - in truth the ocean floor at that depth is not vastly populated by many macro organism. Yes the ones that are there are a valuable part of the ecosystem but the exact life cycle isn't fully understood because it isn't studied extensively. I can tell you that many of the organisms that thrive in those depths are organisms - tube worms and clams that thrive on the NATURALLY occurring seeps that exist all over the GOM and other locations throughout the world. These creatures live off the sulfur and hydrocarbons that are being expelled.
THE SPILL was a terrible tragedy - 11 men lost their lives - no dispute there!!! I've worked in this industry for 33 years and many lives are lost because it is a dangerous working environment and no matter how many safeguards we put in place -accidents happen. Should we just accept that nothing can be done - absolutely not!!! There are always valuable lessons to be learned from every incident.
To the poster who indicated we are still cleaning up after the Valdez - he is mistaken. Has anyone been to the Prince William Sound - if you have, you will see a pristine place as you will ever see. Are there places along the thousands of miles of coastline that you can go to an turn over a rock and find some residual oil - yes. Mother nature has sprung back - was that a terrible tragedy - YES and no one lost their lives. But is it some sort of devastated location - no. It was devastated for a period of years when the clean up was underway and the fisheries were suspended. Were the fishermen compensated-yes!!! After the fishing industry resumed the fishing industry came back with such a huge harvest that the commercial fishermen complained that the market was saturated with salmon and the price was too low.
To the issue on the use of dispersant - believe me you want to disperse the oil as much as possible - so that the sticky gooey mess does not come ashore - the impact to the shoreline would have been much much worse had all this oil been allowed to get onshore into the coastal estuaries that are so important in the ecological chain and so many livelihoods. When the oil gets to the surface it can be moved by the wind - winds generally move either onshore, or offshore - subsurface currents rarely move towards shore from the deep ocean. When the choices are bad or worse - you have to choose to try to limit the devastation. Ask a surgeon that has to amputate a limb to save the life of the person.
Does BP need to be held responsible for this mess - yes! Will they pay fines - yes.
If you really want to hate the industry that runs your boat, your car, your electricity - buy a horse, row your boat, and burn wood.
