Mutant Sea Creatures Turning up in the Gulf of Mexico
By Steve Kinsman, 20th Apr 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
Grotesque looking, deformed sea creatures are becoming a common sight in the Gulf of Mexico.
- BP's legacy in the Gulf
- Eyeless shrimp
- Mutations could be permanent
- University of South Florida survey
- BP - "Who, us?"
- Thank you, Al Jazeera
BP's legacy in the Gulf
Al Jazeera reported today, April 20, 2012, that fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico are finding "disturbing numbers" of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe "are deformed by chemicals released during British Petroleum's 2010 oil disaster."
Dr. Jim Cowan is a scientist with the Louisiana State University Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. He says "The fishermen have never seen anything like this. And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand fish, I've never seen anything like this either." According to the Al Jazeera report, "Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause."
Eyeless shrimp
According to Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, who are commercial fishers from Barataria Bay, Louisiana, "at least fifty percent of the shrimp caught in...Barataria Bay...were eyeless," Kuhns reported. "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets," she said. "Some people are catching these out in the open Gulf. They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes...they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."
Mutations could be permanent
According to Al Jazeera's report, Dr. Riki Ott, a marine biologist and toxicologist, said that the solvents and dispersants used after the oil spill are "notoriously toxic to people." The dispersants are mutagenic, meaning that because shrimp have a short life span, within only two to three generations the chemicals enter the genome and render mutations permanent.
University of South Florida survey
Cowan's findings are corroborated by a University of South Florida survey that found more than twenty species of fish with lesions, and in many locations they found up to fifty percent of the fish had them. In normal, healthy seas that figure is never more than one-tenth of one percent.
BP - "Who, us?"
British Petroleum has had the temerity to air television commercials in America extolling their cleanup efforts and their self-professed claims of corporate responsibility. Incredulously, even in the face of the mountains of evidence that they have wreaked monumental environmental damage on the gulf and poisoned its seafood, they have today issued the following statement: "Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident."
Thank you, Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is the only major network reporting on these findings. The notable absence of the American mainstream networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX - from reporting this story is proof positive that the mainstream media in this country is dedicated to the proposition of keeping us all in the dark. After all, BP spends major dollars advertising on these networks, which is more important to them than performing their journalistic duty: to report truthfully what is happening that affects our lives.
Al Jazeera TV report video:
Photo of eyeless shrimp from Al Jazeera
Oil on beaches, shrimp boat, BP gas station and shrimp processing photos from photobucket.com
Comments
20th Apr 2012 (#)
OMG again Steve..information is profound..star page too...glad that Mark does give some a star....am giving up writing for wiki for a while...
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Sorry to hear hant cnwriter. I'll miss your great posts.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
said in anger..I retract those words...
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20th Apr 2012 (#)
Great information Steve and a bit scary good for you to spread the news.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Thank you Mark. I appreciate that.
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20th Apr 2012 (#)
Another incident of man's cruelty to nature and organisms. Thank you Steve.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Yes indeed. Thank you, Pradeep.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Very scary Steve...
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Scary is right Delicia! Great article Steve.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Indeed it is scary, Thank you Delicia and Teila. I appreciate your comments.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Someone needs to spread the word, the gulf coast states (folks) have been screaming. Thank you for bringing this to light to more people. Nice one Steve. As always, thank you for sharing.:)
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Thank you Denise. The mainstream media seem to have forgotten you folks down there.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
I'm glad that we are updated with informations like this. Great article. Thanks for sharing.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Thank you mistyleaf.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Your article always provides valuable insight into the nature and cruelty of man to his fellow men and his environment. Thanks, dear friend.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Thank you Buzz.
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
Steve, your article is awesome. We should be frightened but we are such a greed driven society, we act as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. If the sea food is mutated what will it do to us if we consume it?
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21st Apr 2012 (#)
That's a very good question. Many people are not eating seafood that comes from the Gulf of Mexico, and many Gulf Coast fishermen are going bankrupt.
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