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Once toxins enter the food chain, none of it escapes harm, and some may be lost forever, the result of what Marine Environmental Research Institute director Susan Shaw calls "the biggest environmental disaster of our time," saying:
She's been diving in damaged areas and "is horrified by the contamination caused by BP's continued use of dispersants. They've been used at such a high volume that it's unprecedented. The worst of these - Corexit 9527 - is the one (most used. It) ruptures red blood cells and causes fish to bleed." With so much in the water over large areas, "we can only imagine the death that will be caused."
Shaw explained that contaminated plankton and smaller shrimps will be eaten by larger fish, passing the deadly mix up the food chain, "dismantling (it), piece by piece."
On June 8, University of South Florida's College of Marine Science "confirmed the (large widespread) presence of distinct layers of degraded oil (in two deep water plumes) of the northern Gulf of Mexico many miles from the Deepwater Horizon explosion site" - based on research it conducted and continues to pursue. In late May, its scientists reported one plume 22 miles long and 100 feet thick.
One or more others now exist and continue getting larger. BP denies they exist, CEO Tony Hayward saying "The oil is on the surface. They're aren't any plumes."
According to Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of Mexico Studies director, Larry McKinney, "At the depth that these plumes are at, (vast parts of) the sea will be toxic for God knows how long."
Tulane University's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department Professor, Michael Blum, warns about mass extinction, saying:
"There are....hundreds of shorebirds and marine mammals that are acutely sensitive to oil. You could potentially lose whole species, have extinction events." Other experts share that view about a disaster so huge, it's hard imagining how bad it may get. Some fear the worst - yet the administration, BP and most major media reports conceal it, though gradually more information comes out.
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