It only took five months.
Yesterday, the US government officially declared BP’s Macondo oil well “effectively dead”. Reports the New York Times:
“We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” Adm. Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard officer who leads the federal spill response, said in a statement. The well, he said, “poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico”.
Here’s a list of other things declared dead as a result of the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent oil spill (53,000 barrels a day before the well was capped):
- 11 men.
- 3902 birds (as of August 10), and counting.
- 517 endangered sea turtles.
- 71 marine mammals, mostly dolphins.
- The Gulf’s fishing industry. In May a fisheries disaster was called for the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Initial cost estimates to the fishing industry were $2.5 billion. A fishing ban still covers one third of the Gulf. On August 31, a Boston lab said it found dispersant in a seafood sample taken near Biloxi, Miss., almost a month after BP said it had stopped using the chemical.
- One unidentified reptile.
- The tourism industry. Visitors along the Gulf coast spent in excess of $34 billion in 2008, sustaining 400,000 jobs. According to an Oxford Economics report commissioned by the US Travel Association, current indicators show double-digit declines in plans to travel to the region. (Estimates over a three-year period could exceed $23 billion).
- BP’s reputation. According to a recent Search Engine Watch article, in July BP spent near $1 million a month in spend between Google AdWords and YouTube advertising. BP also contracted for $50 million worth of television advertising and kept up a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and Flickr profile.
But no amount of PR spend can help remove this stain.
On the bright side, what a nice piece of “good ol’ American know-how” – what a great PR job?
It’s all seemed to have been that “alien/foreign BP’s fault” – copping all the flak, and no-one from “home” – including “Snowed White”, the concrete supplied by, “All American” Halliburton?
While I won’t argue that the BP spill has killed a lot of things, you might want to get your facts straight.
That photo of mass fish death has been verified as NOT being as a result of the oil spill – rather it was caused by low tides and high temperatures depriving the fish of oxygen.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4136121/Massive-fish-kill-unrelated-to-BP-spill-authorities-say
Crikey, did you read the text accompanying that photo at its source before giving it your own misleading caption?
From the source: “Fish kills are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, particularly during the summer in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of this kill. The area is rife with dead zones — stretches where sudden oxygen depletion can cause widespread death.”
Then an update, at the same source: “The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries investigated the fish kill and determined that it was the result of low oxygen levels caused by low tides and high temperatures.”
Would you care to elaborate on how you arrived at your apparently definite conclusion that the fish kill was “as a result of the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent oil spill”, other than crap journalism that suited your agenda?
There’s also the sad story of Hippocampus zosterae. According to Project Seahorse….
“The Gulf of Mexico oil spill this year and subsequent cleanup efforts could drive the world’s smallest sea horse into extinction, warns the Zoological Society of London.”
For more info:
http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/09/07/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-threatens-seahorse-species-with-extinction-researchers/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deepwater-doom-extinction-threat-fo-2010-09-08
Oh good heavens, the oil will kill everything for decades to come, just ask Alaska.