July 4th, 2010
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Author: Published: Sunday, July 04, 2010, 7:01 PM
Developments today in the fight against the Gulf oil spill:
As of early afternoon Sunday, beach areas in Gulf Shores and Orange
Beach appeared to be clear of major impacts from the oil spill. At Dauphin Island, only a few dozen people were at the beach early Sunday afternoon.
Recent testing by the Press-Register indicates that a low-oxygen dead
zone is hugging the seafloor in places along the Alabama coast, with
levels far below the threshold required to support life. The low oxygen areas threaten the creatures that live on or buried beneath the seafloor, such as clams and marine worms. The worms, for instance, are exceptionally abundant and provide a primary food source for snapper, grouper and other fish.
Cleanup crews across the Gulf of Mexico surveyed damage done by last
week’s hurricane while contending Sunday with choppy seas that idled
many of the boats dedicated to keeping oil from hitting vulnerable
beaches and marshes. Offshore skimming vessels were able to
operate in Louisiana waters, but not off the coasts of Alabama,
Mississippi and Florida, officials said.
Workers were taking an inventory of turtle nests on the Gulf Coast Sunday, checking to see which ones survived high tides that washed in ahead of Hurricane Alex last week, according to a spokesman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Surviving nests will be moved to a facility on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, and baby turtles will released there once the eggs hatch. This
will keep the hatchlings from getting caught up in the Gulf oil disaster, said Chuck Underwood, the spokesman.
The US government is expected to take over control of the central information website on the Gulf oil spill response that has been run jointly by various agencies and BP for the 2½ months since the rig explosion. The Department of Homeland Security wants a one-stop shop for information that is completely overseen by the government. The U.S. Coast Guard falls under Homeland
Security’s authority. The deepwaterhorizonresponse.com site may still be
maintained during the changeover, but ultimately it will be taken down
altogether.
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