NOAA: Most of the Gulf oil is gone

Posted on 05 August 2010

The vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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A third of the total amount of oil released in the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill was captured or mitigated by recovery operations, including burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead, according to a government report.

An additional 25 percent of the total oil naturally evaporated or dissolved, and 16 percent was dispersed naturally into microscopic droplets. The residual amount, 26 percent, is either on or just below the surface as residue and weathered tarballs, has washed ashore or been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments.

"Less oil on the surface does not mean that there isn't oil still in the water column or that our beaches and marshes aren't still at risk," NOAA said in a statement. "Knowing generally what happened to the oil helps us better understand areas of risk and likely impacts."

Click here for the full release.

Comments

Dear Trades,

Very, very disapointed with you. Just to take the word of NOAA without cross-checking is extremely disapointing. This, besides being a major ecological disaster, could have been a major story for you if you just got off your butt and did some old fashioned background research. Very, very disapointed. This will make me question EVERY blurp you publish.

NOAA = Not Ordinarily Accurate Anyway

Here we go again, who believes this? oil evaporated! wow....For sure this matter was fixed with big numbers behind our view, as many other issues, propaganda tell us things to get us in a direction they want...This is one more thing, a good example is immigration, they have injected an anti immigrant karma, that way, there is no reform, the big guys yet keep their workers with low wages because it is convenient for them, other wise they will pay minimum, insurance...and more...even knowing a reform will mean a clen up, guys with record will be deported, people with no english will have to learn or out, we will keep just the best of the pack and for sure there is at least a quarter of this millions that is positive for our economy...

Something was cooked up, either with pounds, gold or oil...and who cares about the ocean, it will fix itself..rich people will order their crabs and shrimp from over seas and they will blame our fishermans for over fishing the gulf or some storm for the problem...end..it is all about money...

And if you all google the local newspapers along the coast you will find that some guys on the Mississippi coast cought crabs and when they cracked them open, their gills were tainted black from the oil. Crabs are bottom feeders.

Shrimpers in Louisiana cought 300 lbs of shrimp in an area that was cleared for shrimping and the whole catch was covered in oil.

Oil does not disolve in water. That is BS. And it doesn't evaporate in a month either.

That oil is still out there on the bottom and in plumes and when the fishstocks begin to decline because of the oil, tainted prey in the food chain and oxygen depletion NOAA will blame the fishermen, citing overfishing is the cause.

But I think it was good that Trade Only providede this information.

Evaporated, who knew that oil could evaporate? It sure must get awfully hot in the Gulf of Mexico to be able to do that. I live in Florida and yes it is hot down here this year but all those millions and millions of gallons of oil, EVAPORATED. I quess OUR Gov't really must think we are a bunch of idiots. It sure seems like BP does! The longer this goes on down here the more rediculous all the officals sound. I vote for inspections of each and every one of those oil rigs in the gulf and shutting down any that are not complying with the strictest standards that we can put on them.

NOAA . This comes from the same people that said that all the red snapper

stocks have vanished. And we can only fish for 2 months.

A marine trade organization like Trade Only should have the other side of the story; ie, the "Federal Government (NOAA) says the oil is gone" !! Why not, in your article have the other side of the story, in stead of relying on "comments" from the public. You should have had the professor from FSU, or some professional like him to make a statement in the article. It appears some on the Trade Only may have dropped the ball on this article, you normally do a much better job.

Trade Only just re writes the A,P, wire. Many members of the academic community who have been working for more then 100 days tracking and evaluating the spill are stoping just short of accusing the administration of selling out .Ian McDinald,a professor of oceanography at Florida State University says "This is shakey report and the more I read it the less saitisfied I am". Larry McKinney who heads up the Gulf of Mexico Research Center at Texas A and M says "This is just way to neat" and wonders how the Obama administration can issue a report like this when there is still alot of oil floating around in the gulf. BP attornies are encasing this report in plastic, he says, to use in future court battles. In short the Obama admistration has just given the oil company big ammo that could save it millions in clean up costs. FSU's McDonald sums up the report sums up the whole thing saying "There's some science here but it is mostly spin and it breaks my heart to see them do it.

"The Government" doesn't say or do anything that is not spin to the American public. My guess would be that Obama and his Czars can ill afford a long drawn out Gulf debacle going into the November elcetions, they already have enough negatives to deal with. Mother Nature is the major player here and she always will be in these types of situations. Watch for the spin coming out of Washington to start blaming everyone and taking total credit for thmselves. I think its still a continuation of the George Bush, Dick Cheney plot to destroy New Orleans

THE OIL IS ALL GONE!! Right! Does this really make any sense at all to anyone? Does the worst oil spill in excess of 5 times the 2nd worst just 'disappear' within a month? Does NOAA think all Americans have the intellectual processing abilities of a 3 year old -'Peek-a-Boo, All Gone!' In anyone's experience, has any physical material just 'disappeared'? WOW!! What about the 1800 ft columns of oil and 'dispersement agent' under the surface?? What about underwater 'clouds' of oil whose circumference is larger than most north-eastern states? Do those count? The audacity of Federal Government buracracies to blatently, bold faced, LIE is only surpassed by American citizens' gullibility, ignorance, dependance, and submissive behavior! As Americans I realize we have gotten the government we deserve.

Hell, NOAA can't even get the hurricane predictions within statistical accuracy! Do you believe ANYTHING they say anymore?

If you believe these statistics, then you also believe in Santa Claus.

Come on guys, both BP and our government have failed the American people on this one. Now the government is lying to us to cover up their incompetent reaction to this leakage.

Here's the truth. Oil is largely not seen anymore (on the surface or beaches) because almost 2,000,000 gallons of dispersents were used to breakup the oil and make it sink below the surface. Now we face an ecological disaster from the oil in the water. It will ultimately sink to the seabed and destroy the life down there.

There is talk of microbes eating the oil. Well, what happens to all those microbes when they run out of food? Also, this process is creating "dead" zones in the water due to lack of oxygen.

We have been lied to by BP and the federal government has totally failed to protect the ecology and economy of the Gulf region. Many people in the Gulf will pay a high price for these lies and incompetancy. Shame on BP and our government!

I can't beleive Trade Only would take the Governments word for this. These stastictics were put out by the same people that told us in the first few weeks of the spill that there were only a fraction of oil spilling into the gulf that actually was. Instead of going off the Administrations "SPIN" numbers we should wait untill the experts come up with the FACTS.

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