Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico are in the initial phase of collapse, according to scientists.

New Orleans, LA – Nearly two years after BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen and scientists say things are getting worse. Interviews with fishermen and scientists across Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have shed light on the distressing truth that nearly two years after the BP oil disaster began in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, fisheries for oysters, shrimp, crab and fish are producing dramatically reduced catches.

One scientist told Al Jazeera that many of the Gulf fisheries “have already collapsed” and the only question is “if or when they’ll come back”.

Given that after the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska in 1989, herring have still not come back enough to be a viable fishing resource, this does not bode well for the Gulf seafood industry, whose fisheries are – according to scientists – still in the initial phase of collapse.

Click here to see this photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

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Nearly two years after BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen and scientists say things are getting worse.

New Orleans, LA – Hundreds of thousands of people living along the US Gulf Coast have hung their economic lives on lawsuits against BP.

Fishermen, in particular, are seeing their way of life threatened with extinction – both from lack of an adequate legal settlement and collapsing fisheries.

One of these people, Greg Perez, an oyster fisherman in the village of Yscloskey, Louisiana, has seen a 75 per cent decrease in the amount of oysters he has been able to catch.

“Since the spill, business has been bad,” he said. “Sales and productivity are down, our state oyster grounds are gone, and we are investing personal money to rebuild oyster reefs, but so far it’s not working.”

Perez, like so many Gulf Coast commercial fisherman, has been fishing all his life. He said those who fish for crab and shrimp are “in trouble too”, and he is suing BP for property damage for destroying his oyster reefs, as well as for his business’ loss of income.

People like Perez make it possible for Louisiana to provide 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US.

But Louisiana’s seafood industry, valued at about $2.3bn, is now fighting for its life.

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The size and location of an oil seep in the Gulf of Mexico indicates that it could be caused by human activity.

New Orleans, LA – While oil giant BP has successfully settled in the first of a three-phase trial for at least $7.8bn, residents of the Gulf Coast remain concerned about a large oil seep along an area near BP’s capped Macondo well. The disaster at BP’s well gushed at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the spring and summer of 2010, causing the largest marine oil disaster in US history. By comparison, the Macondo reservoir, from which this new oil is likely seeping, contains an estimated 50 million barrels of producible oil. Al Jazeera conducted a flight over the area on February 29, 2012, and found silvery oil sheen, oil globules and long reddish rope-formed oil across an area 35 km long with a width ranging from 20 to 100 metres. Al Jazeera noticed oil seeping from this same site during a fly-over on September 11, 2011. While natural oil seeps are common in the Gulf of Mexico, the size and location of this seep could indicate that it has been caused by human activity.

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As BP pays billions in settlements, scientists are concerned about a persistent oil seep near the Macondo 252 well.

New Orleans, LA – As BP settles out of court for the first phase of thousands of lawsuits that could cost the company tens of billions of dollars, Al Jazeera has spotted a large oil sheen near the infamous Macondo 252 well.

In September 2011, Al Jazeera spotted a large swath of silvery oil sheen located roughly 19km northeast of the now-capped well.

But now, on February 29, Al Jazeera conducted another over-flight of the area and found a larger area of sea covered in oil sheen in the same location.

Oil trackers with the organisation On Wings of Care, who have been monitoring the new oil since mid-August 2011, have for months found rainbow-tinted slicks and thick silvery globs of oil consistently visible in the area.

“This is the same crescent shaped area of oil and sheen I’ve been seeing here since the middle of last August,” Bonny Schumaker, president and pilot of On Wings of Care, told Al Jazeera while flying over the oil.

Schumaker has logged approximately 500 hours of flight time monitoring the area around the Macondo well, and has flown scientists from NASA, the US Geological Survey (USGS), and oil chemistry scientists to observe conditions resulting from BP’s oil disaster that began in April 2010.

When Al Jazeera flew to the area on September 11, 2011, the oil sheen was approximately 25km long and 10 to 50 metres wide, at a location roughly 19km northeast of the Macondo 252 well.

On the recent over flight, the area covered in oil sheen was approximately 35km long, and ranged from 20 to 100 metres wide in approximately the same location. At times, fumes from the oil filled the aircraft, even at an altitude of 350 metres.

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The largest environmental trial in US history begins March 5, as BP is sued for its 2010 oil spill disaster.

New Orleans, LA – It was the largest marine oil disaster in the United States, and now BP’s trial is the largest and most complex environmental lawsuit in US history.

In what is being called by many “The Trial of the Century”, a thousand plaintiffs, a multitude of witnesses, and at least 20,000 exhibits will converge at a US district court in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 5 for litigation surrounding BP’s oil disaster that began on April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

US President Barack Obama, two months after the blowout, referred to [the BP spill] as “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced”.

The disaster caused at least 4.9 million barrels of oil to gush into the Gulf, a situation that was compounded by at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersants used to sink the oil.

Louisiana’s fishing and shrimping industries continue to suffer, large numbers of Gulf residents suffer health problems they blame on BP’s chemicals, and tar balls and destroyed marsh lands persist across much of the affected areas of the Gulf Coast.

US President Barack Obama, two months after the blowout, referred to it as “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced”.

The first of this three-phase trial will focus on litigation around the Clean Water Act and Oil Spill Pollution Act, in order to determine BP’s liability, and whether the oil giant’s behaviour around the accident was grossly or criminally negligent.

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Over a year after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, local seafood businesses are closing due to smaller catches.

In the wake of previous oil disasters, like the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989, it took several years to see the impact on marine life and the fishing industry. However, fishermen and scientists along the Gulf of Mexico coast, which was heavily affected by BP’s oil disaster in the summer of 2010, are already seeing greatly diminished catches, widespread signs of disease, scarring, and death in shrimp, fish, dolphin, and oyster populations.

The fishing industry is seeing the effects already, with some of Louisiana’s largest seafood distributors now closing their doors, or coming close to doing so. For a region whose culture and livelihood has been based upon the Gulf of Mexico and the seafood business for generations, the consequences could well be catastrophic.

Click here to see this photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

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BP faces a raft of criminal and civil litigation for its role in last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In a key investigative report released on September 14, the US government heaped most of the blame for last year’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on BP. The British company now faces a raft of criminal and civil litigation and billions of dollars in potential damages.

The report concluded that BP violated federal regulations, ignored safety concerns and crucial warnings, and made careless decisions during the cementing of the well nearly two kilometres underwater.

“That report summarised what we already knew, and it will help establish the punitive damage case against the defendant [BP],” New Orleans-based attorney Stuart Smith, representing more than 1,000 cases against BP, told Al Jazeera.

Smith, along with many other lawyers representing clients with lawsuits against BP, believes it may well take BP $30bn to cover all the cases against it.

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Over a year after the BP oil disaster, many Gulf Coast residents have been reporting serious health problems.

In the wake of BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, countless Gulf Coast residents have been made sick by what they believe to be chemicals from BP’s oil and toxic dispersants.

Their situation is made worse by BP not paying out health-related claims, despite the oil giant’s promises to “make things right” and “make people whole”.

To read more about their situation, click here.

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As oil, sickness and contamination persist, Gulf residents and lawyers file thousands of lawsuits against the oil giant.

“If you got caught humping another woman – [if] you’re both naked and caught in the act – you’d want BP to explain to your wife how it didn’t happen.”
This colorful analogy was proposed by Dean Blanchard, a seafood distributor on Grand Isle, Louisiana, to explain oil giant BP’s continuing machinations to evade liability in the aftermath of the April 2010 disaster.

During a recent discussion in his office, Blanchard told Al Jazeera that the fishing waters off Louisiana are only producing one per cent of the shrimp they formerly produced. “Half of the local fishermen have shut down,” he stated. “They are dying. And [as] for the fishing, every day they are hauling dead porpoises in front of my place. I have a claim filed with BP, but none of us in the seafood business are being paid.”

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Two Louisiana beaches were closed to the public after Tropical Storm Lee uncovered huge tar and oil mats

In April 2010, BP’s Macondo well explosion leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.

Now, over a year later, problems continue. On September 13, 2011, Al Jazeera investigated an announcement that two public beaches, Fourchon Beach and Grand Terre Island Beach, in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, were closed to the public by BP for undisclosed reasons. Al Jazeera was escorted to the Edward Wisner Land Donation, a land trust where most of the oil was found, along 16km of beach.

Upon examining Fourchon Beach, Al Jazeera found that the recent Tropical Storm Lee had eroded the top sand away, leaving evidence of massive tar and oil mats that have been buried under these beaches since the summer of 2010.

Click here to see the photo gallery on Al Jazeera English…

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