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LOUISIANA - Nearly two months after the oil well ruptured 5,000ft below in the Gulf of Mexico, the tragic effect on marine wildlife is only now becoming visible.
Suzanne Goldenberg of CommonDreams.org, in the company of a marine biologist, recently visited wildlife haven Grand Isle, Louisiana to see for herself.
With “the most volatile and toxic form of crude oil” spewing uninterruptedly into their habitat, the “wholesale slaughter of dolphins, pelicans, hermit crab and other marine life” is becoming readily visible to humans, she reports.
They encounter bottlenose dolphins swimming, eating, even mating in waters “criss-crossed by wide burnt-orange streamers of oil”.
Goldberg reports that these dolphins are all “at risk of absorbing toxins, from the original spill and from more than 1.2m gallons of chemicals dumped into the Gulf to try to break up the slick”. According to the maine biologist accompanying her “they get it in their eyes. They get it in the fish they eat and it is also possible when they come to the surface and open their blowhole to breathe that they are inhaling some of it”.
