Adventures of the Blue-eyed Bear

Oil is no longer gushing into the Gulf of Mexico but the the fight to save and protect the creatures that live in those sullied waters continues. A recent study published in the Journal Nature by scientists from Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute has found that oil is still present in the deep ocean 1000 to 3000 meters below the surface, this undersea cloud of oil is 2k wide and extends out 35 k from the spill site. The good news is its not dense. But the Blue-eyed Bear suspects that even the slightest concentrations will affect sea life. Continued monitoring is essential. So the Blue-eyed Bear asks everyone just to help a little by supporting those conservation organizations that are helping to assess and mitigated the devastation.

The B-E has adopted the loggerhead sea turtle LuLu to help fund that Sea Turtle Conservancy. This group is working to move hatchling sea turtles from the Gulf beaches to the east coast of Florida so that they don’t swim out into the fowled gulf waters and die. NASA is also helping with the turtle relocation. Check out the NASA web site for more details.

Live Long and Prosper Little Dudes! The Blue-eyed Bear helps with Sea Turtle relocation.

The Blue-eyed Bear has made her way along the Gulf beaches to the Florida Panhandle. There she is helping with a desperate project to save a generation of sea turtles from sure death in the oily gulf water. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is heading this project to move some 70,000 turtle eggs from the Alabama and Florida beaches and will transport them to the east coast of Florida for release. The B-E Bear thinks she can help locate turtle nests with her supper sensitive Bear nose. She will also make her way to the east coast to help with the release of the little turtle hatchlings. Most of the nests are thought to belong to loggerhead turtles. You know the turtles that starred in the movie “Saving Nemo”. These turtles can live to be 150 years old!

The B-E bear suggests that all humans can help by adopting a sea turtle and supporting the work of Sea Turtle Conservancy at conserveturtles.org This is a Galveston, Florida based organization that was founded by Dr. Archie F. Carr formerly of the University of Florida. Carr was a biologist and conservationist and an expert in sea turtles. He died in 1987 but his legacy of research and protection of turtles through education and conservation live on with this organization.

The Blue-eyed Bear is burning to know how Humans think they can handle an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean!

Today is the 71th day that oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. As bad as this Gulf oil spill is the Blue-eyed Bear wants everyone to imagine what would happen if there was a Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Arctic Ocean. Here are a few thoughts if you find it hard pressed to do this imagining. The arctic ocean is generally covered with ice for most of the year so oil coming to the surface would be stuck below the ice and spread out  beneath it.  Skimming or burning of oil does not seem possible. Sea mammals such as narwals, walrus,  and  seals swimming below the ice would die and or have little possibility of recovery or rehabilitation. How do you clean the oil off a narwal? The Oil companies probably would use dispersants  heavily with little idea of what effect that would have on the food chain. Once the sea mammals die from lack of food the bears will die as well.  One thing in the oil companies favor is there won’t be a lot of Humans around to see the devastation of an Arctic spill. And we know that some Alaskans such as former Senator  Ted Stevens think the arctic is just a wasteland so Humans probably won’t be much concerned.

The B-E Bear thinks an Arctic oil spill is a nightmare scenario. So she strongly supports the 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling. And in some places like the Arctic it should never be tried. Humans need to step back from the brink and get their act together. They can no longer trust the oil companies when they say safety is the No 1 priority. If that were so the oil companies would voluntarily shut their deep water rigs down until they can assure their technology works. The oil companies in Norway did shut down their deep water rigs. Their scared and Americans should be too. There are some real problems with the first and last line of defense against a spill the Blow Out Preventers. It seems they are finicky pieces of equipment and have be known to fail as much as 45% of the time. And the oil companies have known for a long time that there are problems with this device especially in the rigors of the  deep ocean. For some interesting and really scary reading go to the New York Times June 20th investigative report entitled “Regulators Failed to Address Risk in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device. If Judge Feldman read this article I don’t understand how he could have found the moratorium on drilling an arbitrary action!

Blood Offering to the Water Lilly Serpent

Its Day 53 of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Oil is still gushing out of the rent in the deep sea. A red  frothy oily ooze is coming ashore on the beaches of Alabama. The oil is making its way along the beaches of the Florida Panhandle. NOAA research vessels  have  confirmed that there are undersea plumes of oil. No one knows how those plumes will effect the ecology of the deep sea. The Government has also confirmed that flow of the oil from the rent far exceeds previous estimates. They not say it  is as much as four times the Exxon Valdez already spilt.  And the oil is getting nearer and nearer to the loop current. Oh and the humans are haggling over who will pay for all of this!

Blue-Eyed Bear feels desperate to do something to change the trajectory of this disaster. So she is going to call on some very old spirits, some denizens of the deep watery world or underworld for help. But, these spirits don’t work cheap. So She’s taking a blood sacrifice (Bear Blood) to the Mayan Water Lilly Serpent in hopes that this spirit can intercede to stem the flow of oil. Many new and old world cultures have stories concerning these underworld serpent spirits. Generally, these spirits are tricky to deal with as they are elemental and don’t really care what happens to this creation. The BE Bear is using the Maya method of blood sacrifice and making the offering to a Maya  spirit of the deep  because of its proximity to the Gulf. We will see if the BE Bear’s sacrifice is sufficient!

The Blue-eyed Bear asks from where will rescue come?

The Blue-eyed bear and her pair of coastal coyotes are running the Gulf beaches. They have found a lot of oil, some of which is quite thick. Yet they see no humans or their boats trying to do anything about it. Where are all the skimmers that are supposed to head off the worst of the oil before it comes ashore? Where are the rescuers who are supposed to help the stricken wildlife?  The BE Bear has found an oil covered gull. She would like to get some help for the bird but there are no rescuers in sight.

Gen. Thad Allen said today this disaster will go on into the the fall even if they close the well in August. Do they not  realize that the Gulf is dying!!!!!! This disaster will go on for years. Thats the dirty little secret that BP doesn’t want you to know.  BP can’t make it right it will never be right again. This is but act one of this catastrophe. It can get worst!

A coastal coyote sings; all the stars have fallen from the sky.

Its a little frightening writing this post because in doing so it may make it come true that the Gulf of Mexico is dying. The Blue-eyed bear is now running the Gulf beaches with two coastal coyotes and what they are finding is not good. (This post is based on a photograph by Gerald Herbert of piles of dead starfish on Chandeleur Island in the  Breton National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana). Coyotes survive pretty well on the coast by scavenging what washes ashore. that is dead fish, a seabird or two, maybe some turtle eggs. But they can’t eat oily food! So that means there probably won’t be any pups this year and they may have to move inland which means more possible encounters with humans. Humans and coyotes don’t mix even though some call the coyote “god’s dog” or “song dog”. Coyote will survive! They are tryig to convice the BE Bear to move inland with them but the BE Bear is not sure she is done on the gulf coast yet.

As I write this the top-kill attempt to plug the Deep Horizon oil well has failed. BP is moving to cut the riser pipe and put a containment valve on top of the well. Hope it works as nothing has as of yet. The only good thing to come of this so far is that the President has put a 6 month moratorium on off-shore drilling which stops Shell Oil from drilling in the Chuckchi Sea. No technology exists to respond in a meaningful way to a spill in the arctic sea. The Blue-eyed bear is truly frightened that her land of origin will be that next disaster zone.

The Blue-eyed bear thinks this photo from the Mississippi delta now being soaked in oil says it all. BP how are you going to clean the dragonflies?

The Blue-Eyed Bear says swim away!

The BE Bear has taken to the waters of the Gulf to find the sperm whales that feed and calve near the deep water Mississippi River trench. She wants to tell them to swim away from the ever spreading discharge of the undersea oil geyser. But which way should the whales go? A report by the New York Times  suggests that NOAA is not doing enough to track the the deep sea dispersal of the oil. The research ship Pelican came back this past weekend and reported undersea plumes that were miles long and wide. But NOAA told those researchers to shut up. Thats not good! And its not like they didn’t know this could happen in 2003 the National Research Council came out with a report saying an undersea spill would not quickly rise to the surface and would probably form undersea plumes. Once again humans ignore what they can’t see. All the focus is on the coast but the main tragedy is in the deep ocean and no one is looking.

We also need to know how much oil is coming out of that pipe/hole. If Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle thinks it can be calculated then the BE Bear does too. BP needs to give access to the spill area to independent researchers and the government should insist on that point. But the BE Bear is not holding her breath on that point she thinks BP will resist and try to stop the geyser before any one gets a look. What the BE Bear also wants to know is what happens to all the gas that is coming out with the oil and what effect that may have on ecosystems. So many questions that little is being done to answer.

Other disturbing news is that the Oil is now in the loop current and headed for the Florida straits the keys and the white sand beaches of Cuba. Again this fact seems to be played down by the Gov’t. Though the State department is talking to Cuba. So someone must be concerned. The BE Bear is Concerned and may head down to the Florida Keys.

Only Ajaia ajaja can look.

Recent attempts to mitigate the flow of oil into the Gulf have failed and oil is coming ashore. The bear is tired and can’t look at the devastation. Rosey the Roseate Spoonbill is on the wing and her Eyes will see. She is Ajaia ajaja which sounds like a wail of despair or a cry of pain. In reality Ajaia ajaja is the genus and species name for the Spoonbill. It could also be the name of god. The spoonbill was sacred to the Ohio Hopewell people (200 BC to AD 300) and shows up in their bone and stone carvings. These carvings indicate a prehistoric connection between the Ohio River drainage and the Gulf coast. For that matter the Bear was also sacred to the Hopewell. What these animals meant to these ancient people is not known, but they obviously recognized two powerful spirits. Will these spirits survive intact?

Saving Clammy and Her Friends

The Blue-eyed Bear has made it to the Gulf Coast. Specifically she is somewhere on the bayous and wetlands of the Mississippi River delta. Her determination is to do what she can to help out the animals that could be affected by the oil disaster. She has decided to aim her efforts at rescue toward the bottom of the food chain by moving clams further up the delta and out of harms way.

Drop in the Bucket

Moving clams is hard work. You have to carefully scoop them out of the mud and then quickly get them to a new spot before they dry out. Fortunately, bear claws are the perfect clam scoop and  some new Friends are helping out. Clammy the clam informs the BE Bear as to where the endangered clam beds are and what areas would make good new beds. While, Rosie the Spoonbill helps the BE Bear navigate through the dense marsh grasses. Actually, the BE Bear is just doing the heavy lifting. She wonders if this attempt at rescue will make a difference or if its just a drop in the bucket compared to the destruction of the wildlife and their habitat that will happen as the oil comes ashore.  The Blue-eyed bear thinks maybe its best if it did all come ashore to relieve the impact on the deep sea animals that are suffering the effects of the oil right now. Petroleum will be in the food-chain for a long time to come. Because this disaster is energy related and will have such long range effects it seems it can only be compared to the Chernobyl disaster.