A contrast I wish I wasn’t able to make. In my last post, I admired the beautiful underwater images that two freedivers brought to us.
Today I watch, horrified, as life-long diver Al Walker shares his underwater videos of the effects of the BP disaster on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. AP’s Rich Matthews reports here.
This video, posted on alternet, highlights one ecosystem disruption caused by the oil blasting into the Gulf that hasn’t been given much, if any, attention: the effect of reduced light (due to thick oil at and below the surface) on the marine environment.
Walker and marine biologist Scott Porter, a LUMCON (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium) staff scientist, noted that the abundant fish life typically found around oil rigs has dropped down 30 feet where there is less oil.
6.10.10
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