Dolphin tissue testing yet to begin

Posted: Mar 18, 2011 3:54 PM CDTUpdated: Mar 18, 2011 6:56 PM CDT

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Dolphin tissue testing yet to begin 1:49

These dead baby dolphins were found washed up on Horn Island in February 2011.

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By Jeff Lawson – bio | email

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - More dead dolphins washed up on the beaches of South Mississippi this week, but still no one seems to know what is killing them.

Gulfport's Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, led by Dr. Moby Solangi, has been taking tissue samples from the dead dolphins, and sending those off to the federal government. That's been going on for months.

But now, it has been learned that the feds have yet to send those samples off to be tested. So, the obvious question is why?

"It is really a question you should be asking the federal government," IMMS Director Dr. Solangi told us.

So we tried to ask federal officials, but got no answer. The only thing we know at this point is a letter, sent by NOAA to agencies gathering the samples, stated there is an ongoing criminal investigation. The dead dolphins are considered potential evidence in a lawsuit the federal government could file against BP.

So those dolphin tissue samples sit, somewhere in Washington.

Dr. Solangi said that some of those samples are frozen and some are in formaldehyde.

As to how long they can be preserved, Solangi said, "Some samples do have a shelf life, some samples are preserved and stay better for longer periods of time and others are short lived."

Dr. Solangi said the current speculation as to why the dolphins are dying centers on issues like infectious diseases, environmental issues, and the BP oil spill. The only thing we know for sure is, there will be no definitive answer, until the proper testing is done.

Copyright 2011 WLOX. All rights reserved.

Are Coast Beaches Bouncing Back?

CHRYSENE FOUND IN FLORIDA WATERS DETECTED BY OPFLEX POM POMS & SWEEPS

For Immediate Release

March 10, 2011

CHRYSENE FOUND IN FLORIDA WATERS

DETECTED BY OPFLEX POM POMS & SWEEPS

Braintree, Massachussets-based Geo Labs has confirmed the presence of Chrysene in the waters in and around Perdido Key, Florida. This

substance was detected and absorbed by OPFLEX POM POMS and SWEEPS (OPFLEX is listed on the EPA's National Contingency Plan)

submerged near the beach just outside of Eden Condominiums on February 18th, 2011.

Geo Labs CEO, Dave Kahler stated, “We have now built a database of samples from Venice, LA to Pensacola, Florida utilizing EPA testing

protocols. This is the first time we have detected Chrysene, which is most concerning as it is showing up in the water close to the beaches

in Perdido Key, Florida.”

Chrysene is listed by the EPA as a Priority Water Pollutant and, as stated by the EPA website...

"The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and

regulating quality standards for surface waters. The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution

Control Act, but the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. 'Clean Water Act' became the Act's common name with

amendments in 1977. Under the CWA, the EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for

industry. We have also set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters."

Above is a picture of the OPFLEX with the absorbed oil contaminants that were analyzed by Geo Labs. On February 18th ABC - WEAR TV

Pensacola filmed OPFLEX CEO, Scott Smith deploying the very POM POMs and SWEEPS that detected the Chrysene and subsequently

interviewed Smith after deployment.

The interview and footage from the deployment is posted on youTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHECoDtwHXE

FDA Lowers the Bar for Gulf Seafood Safety

BY DAN FLYNN | SEP 08, 2010

State standards for measuring the safety of seafood after oil spills were lowered by FDA for the Gulf of Mexico, the Press-Register in Mobile, AL reports.

The FDA measure in question for cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) allows 132 parts per billion (PPB) in shrimp and crab, and 143 PPB for oysters harvested from the Gulf in the aftermath of the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

After the tanker New Carissa ran aground on the Oregon coast and after an oil spill in California, the state benzo(a)pyrene equivalent limits were 45 PPM and 34 PPM, respectively, for shellfish.

FDA defends setting a standard about three times higher for Gulf coast shellfish than the standards used after those West coast spills. It says during the time between those spills and the BP oil spill, EPA came out with updated cancer-risk data for PAH.

FDA said its levels were based on a 1 in 100,000 risk of developing cancer, while Oregon and California set their limits based on a 1-in-1 million risk.

The levels for these chemical tests and so-called "sniff and taste" tests have been used by state and federal authorities in re-opening waters to both commercial and recreational fishing.

Just less than 40,000 square miles of federal waters in the Gulf and some Louisiana waters remain closed to fishing because of the oil that spilled from the floor of the Gulf for about three months.

FDA officials say testing in areas before waters were opened returned no samples with results above "levels of concern."

More waters open to fishing does not mean the Gulf shellfish harvest is getting back to normal. Last week, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources took oystermen out to the reefs off Pass Christian Harbor.

They found enough empty oyster shells to cast doubt over the coming fall season. DMR dredged and pulled up catches with 80 to 90 percent dead.

While Mississippi officials were blaming warm weather more than the BP oil spill, one industry expert challenged that view.

BP's Vessels-of-Opportunity crewmen reported submerged oil around the oyster reefs in early August, according to Ed Cake, a marine biologist who works with the oyster industry.

"On or before 11 August," Cake says, "a massive kill of pelagic and demersal fishes (and blue crabs) occurred in the same area."

He says "black water" conditions were observed over the Pass Christian oyster reefs and fishermen found dispersed oil absorbent pads lowered in the water column. "Black water," Cake says, "absorbs more solar energy than normal Sound water and that will elevate the water temperature."

Cake said the "anecdotal evidence" suggests the deaths of fishes, crabs, and now oysters resulted from the hypoxic or low dissolved oxygen conditions in Mississippi Sound and the Pass Christian area during early August.

"Although state officials will attempt to place the blame on anything but BP's oil and dispersants that BP's VOO crews sprayed in that area, many folks will conclude that the fish, crab, and oyster kills would not have occurred in the absence of the BP oil and dispersants," Cake adds.

Dead areas are raising questions about just how much oyster production can be expected by the Gulf States during the upcoming season. Oyster areas in Louisiana were also damaged when fresh water was used to hold off the crude oil. Fresh water can kill bivalve mollusks.

Gulf oysters are returning to local menus, but prices are high and supply is spotty.

Redondo Beach fish die-off: Tests show oxygen levels at 'almost zero'

March 8, 2011 | 2:37 pm

Researchers have measured critically low oxygen levels in King Harbor after a massive die-off in the Redondo Beach marina.

Brent Scheiwe, program director at the SEA Lab in Redondo Beach, said he took dissolved oxygen level readings in the harbor after the first reports of the dead fish came in Tuesday morning and found them at almost zero.

“The levels were critically low," he said. "There was pretty much no oxygen in the water."

Photos: Massive fish die-off in King Harbor Marina

Scientists are working to determine what caused oxygen levels to drop so steeply that fish estimated to be in the millions suffocated and deposited a silver sheen of carcasses, many of them sardines, among the rows of docked boats. It may be days before the precise cause is known.

Marine biologists at USC installed oxygen sensors in King Harbor after an algal bloom caused a mass fish die-off in 2005. They are now probing the harbor for clues about the cause of the latest kill, said biological sciences professor David Caron.

“What we're trying to tease apart is whether it's a consequence of algal buildup, a fish buildup or something toxic in the water,” Caron said.

Massive, stinking fish kills also struck King Harbor in 2003 and 2005. Both times, algae blooms robbed the harbor waters of life-enriching oxygen, causing fish to suffocate and die.

Despite efforts by boat owners to scoop up the dead fish, the rafts of decomposing flesh unleashed a powerful stench that plagued the harbor for weeks after each episode. Some boat owners complained of feeling sick from the smell. Others were driven off their boats to seek refuge inland. Waterfront restaurants suffered steep declines in customers, unable to compete with the unsavory odor that hugged the harbor.

Such fish kills have been popping up around the world in what one Louisiana scientist calls “dead zones.” She has spent a career studying America’s largest one, which strikes nearly ever year in an expanse of the Gulf of Mexico about the size of the state of New Jersey.

The cause of the die-off is nearly always decaying algae. Although the oceans are awash in algae, these microscopic organisms bloom when fed by nutrients such as fertilizers and human and animal waste washing off the land. Stoked by such nutrients and exposed to sunlight, algae flourish and then die and sink to the bottom. Bacteria then take over, breaking down the plant matter and sucking the oxygen out of seawater. That leaves little or none for fish and other marine life.

Robert Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and other scientists have identified hundreds of these around the world, choking the life out of harbors, bays and estuaries.

Writing up a report to Congress last September, Diaz found that nearly half of U.S. bays, estuaries and other waterways surveyed have suffered from low-oxygen dead zones. These episodes do not necessarily happen ever year. They strike when the conditions are just right.

The episode in King Harbor follows unusually heavy rainfall in Southern California, which washed lawn fertilizer, dog droppings and similar nutrients into coastal waters. Algae have begun to bloom along the coast as the days grow longer, providing needed sunlight. Recent winds have further enriched waters by stirring up nutrients that these tiny plants need from deeper waters.

Scientists believe such dead zones will increase as ocean waters continue a warming trend in a changing climate. Warmer waters prompt faster biological growth, just like molds and bacteria will more quickly devour food left out of the refrigerator.

Some scientists, such as Jeremy Jackson at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have suggested the oceans are reverting back to primeval seas of millions of years ago, when algae, bacteria and jellyfish ruled the oceans. He playfully dubs this the “rise of slime.”

- Tony Barboza and Kenneth R. Weiss

Photo: A couple troll their little boat through a mass of dead fish in the King Harbor Marina. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Massive, stinking fish kills have struck King Harbor before in 2003 and 2005. Both times, algae blooms robbed the harbor waters of life-enriching oxygen causing fish to suffocate and die.

Despite efforts by boat-owners to scoop up the dead fish, the rafts of decomposing flesh unleashed a powerful stench that plagued the harbor for weeks after each episode. Some boat owners complained of feeling sick from the smell. Others were driven off their boats to seek refuge inland. Waterfront restaurants suffered steep declines in customers, unable to compete with unsavory odor that hugged the harbor.

Such fish kills have been popping up around the world, in what one Louisiana scientists calls “dead zones.” She has spend a career studying America’s largest one, which strikes nearly ever year covering an expanse of the Gulf of Mexico about the size of the state of New Jersey.

The cause of the death is nearly always decaying algae. Although the oceans are awash in algae, these microscopic organisms bloom when fed by nutrients, such as fertilizers and human and animal waste washing off the land. Stoked by such nutrients and exposed to sunlight, algae blooms flourish and then die and sink to the bottom. Bacteria then take over, breaking down the plant matter and sucking the oxygen out of seawater. That leaves little or none for fish and other marine life.

Robert Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and other scientists have identified hundreds of these around the world, choking the life out of harbors, bays and estuaries.

Writing up a report to Congress last September, Diaz found that nearly half of U.S. bays, estuaries and other waterways surveyed have suffered from low-oxygen dead zone. These episodes do not necessarily happen ever year. They strike when the conditions are just right.

The episode in King Harbor follows unusually heavy rainfall in Southern California, which washed lawn fertilizer, dog dropping and similar nutrients into coastal waters. Algae have begun to bloom along the coast as the days grow longer, providing needed sunlight. Recent winds have further enriched waters by stirring up nutrients that these tiny plants need from deeper, waters.

Scientists believe such dead zones will increase as ocean waters continue a warming trend in a changing climate. Warmer waters prompt faster biological growth, just like molds and bacteria will more quickly devour food left out of the refrigerator.

Some scientists, such as Jeremy Jackson at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have suggested the oceans are reverting back to primeval seas of millions of years ago, when algae, bacteria and jellyfish ruled the oceans. He playfully dubs this, the “rise of slime.”

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