ON THE WATERFRONTONTHE WATERFRONT
down the oil or any of the smaller particles which weren’t oil droplets but the end products of that which did pass this way. It did not seem to cause any problem, but it shows again we were very lucky to get only that, in a time when the loop cur- rent was disconnected. What we would of gotten if the loop current was connected is almost scary to think about.
David Vaughn | Continued
prime form. We just removed the last vehicle monitoring that last month. We have been testing months after the cap, so that shows we have the commitment to con- tinue to put money out even if we don’t have full funding for it. We would like to see some funding to do long-term tests on the impact on the Keys and preventing more toxic dispersants from being used.
GD:With the recent testing of the water quality obviously at different depths, what were the findings? Was there a lot of dispersants or carbon, meaning oil, being found? DV:We saw no direct impact on all of our AUV monitoring which went from the Lower Keys area to just off- shore of Naples and way past the Dry Tortugus. Te good news is we saw no immediate dispersants and we saw no immediate indications of oils. Tere were a few weak periods where we did see indications of what we call elevated backscatter. And by backscatter that is small particles in the water that, when you try to put light, it will scatter the light just as if it was a foggy night using a flash- light on land. It had no direct corre- lation to chlorophyll, which would mean it was Plata plankton, so we are theorizing that some of this may have been the end result of some of the residual bacteria that did break
GD:What is it the oil industry has learned in responding to an oil spill like this and its treatment? DV: I think is very controversial be- cause what the oil companies did learn was that you put plenty of dis- persants on it to keep the oil off the surface so there are no pictures of oil effecting pelicans in the marshes. I think if you would ask the oil com- panies they would of said it proba- bly was to their benefit that they put dispersants down at the well head and it never got up to the surface where they could get publicity. Tat means it will be the preferred action of an oil company now — to imme- diately use dispersants, lots, and not worry about the oil that’s at the bot- tom. Here in the Keys what we hold as important is the organisms at the bottom that are creatures such as our live reefs. What we are seeing within a 10- to 15-mile area of the horizon is almost total devastation of the deep-water corals there.
GD:Tat’s a a very dark statement on two levels: the end result of the Deep Horizon is a lot of death on the ocean floor, and, the oil industry potentially has not learned or is not willing to learn from the lessons that are apparent today. DV:Te good news would be let’s use our research and our technology to develop a dispersant that is much less toxic to corals so that if there is any sort of threat in the future.
e 16 KONK Life
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