Oil Spill: Words of Wisdom from Sanibel

With so many comments, speculations and projections about the BP oil spill and its impact, it would be difficulat to pinpoint a single source of information that provides meaningful updates.

But when it comes to some very interesting scientific information on the water world in Southwest Florida and beyond, the Sanibel Sea School has been posting detailed updates showing the testing of the waters in the Sanibel area. Thankfully, the tests are all coming back negative on oil. In addition, the Sanibel Sea School has created some fascinating, educational and sometimes frightening information on their blog about the spill and its impact.

One point made repeatedly is that this is not a "surface" problem.

Like the Gulf itself, the issues run as deep they do wide.

The "solutions" are complex and none offered are perfect.

We are going to select some quotes that we felt were particularly revealing and meaningful from the last several blog posts created by the Sanibel Sea School.

In early May, the blog post warns about the use of dispersants, making an analogy that the dispersants are, essentially, just sweeping the dirt under the carpet:

"Sending oil to the bottom of the ocean damages sea grass beds and coral reefs, and the oil is inadvertently consumed by mussels and other filter feeders – many of which make up the bottom of the Gulf food chain. The chemicals in the oil (mixed with the mysterious top-secret chemicals in the dispersants) will accumulate up the food chain over time until high levels are found in species that humans like to consume."

In later May, the blog post dissects the loop current concept, explaining that the surface oil is unlikely to effect Sanibel because the upper loop current will not carry it in that direction. But the caveat within that post does explain that the upper current is not the only current carrying the oil:

"In all likelihood, a significant amount of oil is being transported below the surface on deeper currents in other directions."

Uh, oh, that's a scary one.

But just week or so after that post, the authors of the blog were quick to assure that those black clumps people were reporting were not oil:

"A few people have expressed concern over dark blobs on the beach, wondering if they have found the first signs of oil on our island. If you come across the lumpy objects pictured at left, don’t panic – they are just tunicates, perhaps the most highly-evolved marine invertebrates. They are also known as “sea pork” or “sea hams,” and are related to sea squirts."

So we all went "whew" .

Perhaps most intriguing was the post on copepods, an almost microscopic crustacean that will be affected by the oil spill and is of extreme importance in the food chain:

" Copepods are so numerous that some scientists believe they make up the largest biomass of all animal species on the planet. Pretty amazing to think that nearly microscopic organisms can, in combination, weigh more than all the fish, whales, or elephants on the planet; but they do. Who would have thought that the workings of the oceans rest upon the mighty, tiny copepod?"

If you want to read these posts in their entirety, we hope you will go directly to the Sanibel Sea School blog. It's well worth the trip!