photo: US Coast Guard
DCL
The second episode of Operation Wild this season premiers Friday, November 5th at 9:30pm Eastern on Planet Green and takes a look at what the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission did during the Gulf oil spill, with officer Dana Klein redeployed from her home region of Jacksonville to other areas of the state to help test what affect the spreading oil might be having.
Thankfully, it's been over two months since the oil stopped flowing from the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon and we can watch this episode knowing that the story doesn't have as sad an ending as it could of. Or at least as bad as it sometimes looked like: If the well hadn't been capped some estimates had shown that there'd still be oil gushing forth into December.
Nevertheless, the spill is still having a significant impact on the Gulf region, as these three recent stories show:
One-Fifth Juvenile Bluefin Tuna Killed by Oil
Early on there were reports that critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna might be killed off as they came into the Gulf to spawn. Considering that at current fishing rates the giant fish will likely be extinct in just two years, anything that inhibits their breeding is a big deal.
Well, recently we found out just how badly the young breeding bluefin were affected by all that oil in the water. Satellite data from the European Space Agency revealed that 20% of juvenile tuna were killed off by the BP oil spill. Which is bad, but it could have been much worse. Wind and current dragged the majority of the oil east, away from the main spawning ground.
Other BP Oil Rig Is "Ticking Time Bomb"
Just after we learned that sobering news, a whistleblower sounded the alarm that another BP oil rig was another "ticking time bomb".
The BP Atlantis platform is operating in deeper waters and is extracting more oil from the Gulf each day than the Deepwater Horizon well leaked, but neither the company nor the feds have proved it is safe. Located 124 miles off the Louisiana coast, the Atlantis platform produces 200,000 barrels of oil daily, more than triple the amount of oil that spilled from the Horizon site each day. But long before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a whistleblowing former BP contractor tipped off regulators that the Atlantis may be violating the law, and environmental groups and members of Congress have been publicly questioning the platform's safety ever since.
Thankfully that time bomb hasn't yet gone off, but when it comes to drilling in these deep waters extreme risk is an inherent part of the operation—and as we have unfortunately seen lax oversight is often part of it as well.
People's Lives Still Being Affected Daily
As for people still being impacted by the oil spill, NRDC and StoryCorps have teamed up to produce Stories From the Gulf, a series of short videos of people telling how the disaster has affected their lives.
Check out this one from Wendy Billiot, an owner of a fishing camp and guide service:
To give you a taste for Operation Wild, check out this clip:
