Two years after the BP spill: eyeless shrimp, snow jobs

Friday marked two years since the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. On today’s broadcast of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman looks at its impact on the Gulf of Mexico’s residents and wildlife — and the fact that no BP officials have faced criminal prosecution for the disaster.

Eleven workers died when the Deepwater Horizon well exploded, and almost five million barrels of crude oil leaked into the ocean before the well was plugged after 51 days. According to Wikipedia, by 12 July, BP had reported applying 1,070,000 US gallons of Corexit [a chamical used to disperse the oil, which has actually hindered the ability for microorgamisms to digest the oil] on the surface and 721,000 US gallons underwater.

BP maintains the Gulf is rapidly recovering thanks to the company’s efforts, but Al Jazeera reporter Dahr Jamail describes how scientists say shrimp, fish and crabs in the Gulf of Mexico have been deformed by oil and chemicals released during the spill cleanup effort. Common problems include massive numbers of eyeless shrimp and crabs losing appendages. Meanwhile, former Louisiana senator and current oil industry lobbyist J. Bennett Johnston and the BP website tout how robust, well-tested and healthy Gulf fish are.

In this same broadcast, ProPublica’s environmental reporter, Abrahm Lustgarten, says BP failed to learn from past mistakes that could have helped avoid the explosion. He is the author of the new book, Run to Failure: BP and the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.

You can watch the entire segment or read the rush transcript here. With Ceres in Taurus moving into a sextile to Chiron in Pisces, perhaps this focus on the health of the food we get from the sea — and of the Earth itself — can get a little traction if we put a little energy behind it.