Understanding the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Photo credit: Alain Foret

This month has been both a special time for our ocean planet and a time of great distress. June 7th kicked off a week full of celebratory events: Capitol Hill Ocean Week, World Ocean Day (June 8th), and my grandfather’s 100th birthday commemoration dive. Throughout the week, the beauty, majesty and fragility of our water world were centerpieces of discussion and reverie.

During our June 11th dive on the “Grand Canglouer” off Marseille (the location of my grandfather’s first expedition in the early 50s), my father Jean-Michel, sister Celine and I were honored to be submerged with some of the original crew of Calypso, such as our dear friend Albert Falco. Not only was this an extraordinary moment for us as a family, but also one that was an intimate communion with the “undersea world.”

Churning in the water column, resembling a giant ink cloud from a gigantic octopus, a dark shroud has enveloped our aquatic arena since April 20th, 2010. The sight has grown all too familiar, thanks to hundreds of websites and blogs broadcasting a live feed. The Gulf oil spill, a catastrophe of epic proportions, has commanded the world’s attention for 62+ straight days now. Not only has the disaster not been halted, the current flow estimates are up to an inconceivable 65,000 barrels of crude spewing freely into the Gulf every 24 hours. That is roughly equivalent to an Exxon Valdez spill every four days… Now that’s daunting!

People are frightened, angry, frustrated, and feeling helpless in the face of such a monstrous disaster. In reaction to such stress, mudslinging and finger pointing abound. Although there is a significant list of people who should be held accountable, there is danger in becoming so distracted that we do not actually fix the problem. The longer we stumble over ourselves and argue, the worse the long-term impact on our environment and our future will be.

Aside from actually “plugging the hole,” a major long-term cleanup effort is mandatory. And no, chemical dispersants are not the answer. We must roll up our sleeves and mop up the mess before it suffocates and poisons not just the Gulf Coast, but the Caribbean, the North American Atlantic Coast and eventually Western European shores. There are representatives from government, NGOs, the private sector, and the public pitching in to help with the cleanup effort. While their significant efforts are definitely helping, the scale of the spill requires a tenfold increase if we are to fathom a brighter future. Adoption of new technologies such as EcoSphere’s filtration units can be a great asset to help eliminate the oil from the water column with the least negative impact. Documenting the effects of BP crude on aquatic and avian wildlife (the Ocean Futures team has been filming in the Gulf since April) is also of paramount importance, both to inform the public about progress and to serve as a basis for future restoration efforts (such as the Plant A Fish initiative). And while there are many people willing to volunteer and help with the animals and beaches, unfortunately we lack the training facilities necessary to enlist all of these potential responders.

With almost 9000 oil and gas platforms surrounding U.S. coastal waters, it’s not a matter of IF this happens again but WHEN. We must end our 100-year-old addiction to fossil fuels. One thing is for sure, we will be dealing with the consequences of the BP Gulf oil spill for decades to come. How long we will be dealing with those consequences is dependent on what we can accomplish now, not what we will do tomorrow. Nature will recover from our abuse eventually. It is up to us if we want to recover with her or be relegated to a footnote in history.

Even though the environmental and economic challenges we face are of monumental proportions, human beings are capable of creating miracles when pressed by necessity. We know what we need to do. Now, it’s a matter of learning to live with the planet rather than living on it.