Offshore Chaos in the Gulf – Part 2
Friday, July 12, 2014
By Roger Payne
Dr. Roger Payne on the bow of the RV Odyssey
Photo: Sea ShepherdWe are here to find out how those whales are reacting to the oil that got released during the oil blowout from Deepwater Horizon, and the dispersants that were sprayed on the oil to sink it out of sight (and out of mind), but that seem to be worse poisons than the oil itself. This is the fifth year of our research, and what we are already finding out is disturbing.
On board our boat are five crew members from our partner organization, Sea Shepherd—all of them dedicated, all of them hard and willing workers, all of them unpaid volunteers, all of them good company. We arise at dawn to the sounds of sperm whale clicks drifting through the boat, and when we see the whale surface in the distance we drive over to it and use a biopsy dart to obtain a skin/blubber sample that we can analyze later for the poisons in it from the oil spill and the dispersants. Today we had perfect calm weather and got eight biopsies. We will keep up our collection until we have at least 50 biopsies and will then return to analyze them for oil and dispersants. And we will publish those results so the world can find out what the true state of the Gulf is in the aftermath of the oil spill. Meanwhile, we urge you to follow our progress (I also urge you to judge for yourself whether it is safe to eat the seafood from these waters—something about which I’ll have more to say in the future.)