- Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr
Tests performed earlier this month by an environmental scientist found significant levels of oil pollution from the BP disaster in oysters and crabs collected along the Gulf of Mexico’s Louisiana coastline.
Working with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper, award-winning chemist Wilma Subra took samples of soil, vegetation, blue crabs, fiddler crabs and oysters in areas affected by pollution from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The test results showed the presence of hydrocarbons corresponding to those from the spill in the soil and vegetation. They also showed high levels of hydrocarbons in sea life. Hydrocarbon exposure has been linked to health problems including disorders of the nervous and immune systems, blood, liver, kidneys and lungs, as well as cancer.
Oysters collected from a reef on Oyster Bayou in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Bay contained 8,815 milligrams/kilogram of hydrocarbons, Subra reports. Samples of blue crab and fiddler crab collected from the same area contained 2,230 mg/kg of hydrocarbons.
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