4 dead dolphins wash up on Gulf Coast beaches in 5 days; deaths part of 'unusual mortality event' | al.com

4 dead dolphins wash up on Gulf Coast beaches in 5 days; deaths part of 'unusual mortality event' al.com: 4 dead dolphins wash up on Gulf Coast beaches in 5 days; deaths part of 'unusual mortality event'

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4 dead dolphins wash up on Gulf Coast beaches in 5 days; deaths part of 'unusual mortality event'
Published: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 6:29 AM     Updated: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 6:53 AM
 By Ben Raines, Press-Register Press-Register
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Print DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama -- A dolphin carcass, bloated and violet in the morning sun, was found on Fort Morgan early Saturday, bringing the number lost since the BP oil spill to more than 400.
Three other dolphins have washed up in Alabama in the past week, including a pregnant female on Dauphin Island and a mother and calf pair on Hollingers Island in Mobile Bay.

Courtesy of John C.S. PierceThis dolphin was found on the Mobile Bay side of the Fort Morgan peninsula Saturday morning, one of four found since Friday. The death brings the total number of dead dolphins found since the BP oil spill to more than 400. Federal officials say an "Unusual Mortality Event" has been declared for the Gulf's dolphin population, which have been dying at a rate 5 to 10 times higher than average.
"We should be seeing one (death) a month at this time of year," said Ruth Carmichael, a Dauphin Island Sea Lab scientist tasked with responding to reports of dead dolphins. "We’re getting one or more a week. It’s just never slowed down."
An examination of the Gulfwide death toll, broken down by month, reveals that dolphins continue to die at rates four to 10 times higher than normal. For instance, 23 dolphins were found dead in August, compared to a monthly average of less than 3 each August between 2002 and 2009.
Federal scientists acknowledge they are no closer to solving the mystery behind the "Unusual Mortality Event" that has been sweeping through the Gulf’s dolphin population since March of 2010, one month before BP’s well was unleashed.
But progress has been made, federal officials said, noting that tissue samples are now being sent to various laboratories for analysis. No results have been released.
"We have samples out now, and they’ve been going out for a while," said Jenny Litz, a research biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We still have animals stranding. I would say the event is still unfolding."
Blair Mase, NOAA’s point person for all dolphin strandings in the Gulf, said that reports of dead dolphins have remained stubbornly high, meaning a final report is a long way off. She said that most of the casualties now are adults.
Stillborn or juvenile dolphins made up nearly half of the casualties in February and March this year, but 90 percent of the deaths since then have been adults. Scientists said part of the explanation is simply timing. Dolphins typically calve in the spring, meaning pregnant females and newborns are at their most vulnerable between February and May.
Though many believe a link between the BP oil spill and the elevated death rate seems obvious, dolphins actually began dying a month before the spill.
'Unusual mortality event' for dolphins not unheard of
To report dead dolphins

To report dolphin and other marine mammal strandings, call: 1-877-942-5343 (1-877-Whale-help).
In March of 2010, 56 dolphins washed ashore in the Gulf, compared to the seven-year average of 16 for the month.
Mass die-offs of dolphins are not unheard of. Fifty-three dolphins washed up on South Carolina beaches this year, and three or four such events typically occur each year around the country.
The majority of the time, the official cause of death is listed as "undetermined," according to federal records.
What’s unusual about what is happening in the Gulf is the duration of the die-off, now well into its second year. It’s possible, scientists said, that whatever killed dolphins in March of 2010 — be it a cold winter, scarce food supplies, or a virus — meant the population was already in a weakened position when the Gulf spill began.
"Clearly, something is going on. My prediction is that it is not going to stop in the near time, if it is what we’re afraid it might be," said Graham Worthy, a University of Central Florida researcher specializing in examining the blubber layer of dolphins and seals to glean information about their health.
"Earlier this year, with the major die-off of the neonates, one of the ideas scientists were throwing around was the disruption of the food chain. Many folks had speculated that was one possible outcome of the spill."
Worthy said such a disruption could weaken the health of the dolphin population on a broad scale, though he cautioned that he has not received any samples from federal officials for analysis.
"I haven’t seen any of these dolphins and don’t know their physical condition. Without tissue samples, all we can do is speculate," Worthy said. "But there have been some interesting stories lately, about abnormalities in developing fish in Louisiana, and reports of the shrimp catch being way, way down this year. Something similar happened after Exxon Valdez, where they had record catches the year after the spill, then a number of species crashed and have never recovered."
Carmichael said the scientific community could do little more than guess about the causes of the deaths until the carcasses have been analyzed.
"We don’t know about lesions on the animals, or about the blubber content. Those are the kinds of analyses we are waiting on," Carmichael said. "When they are done we can work as a group all along the coast and figure out what is going on."
Until that time, all researchers can do is count the bodies as they wash ashore.

Related topics: Dauphin Island Sea Lab, dauphin island sea lab, dead dolphins, dolphins, Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, ruth carmichael

From Cleanup to Recovery

From Cleanup to Recovery: "From Cleanup to Recovery"

From Cleanup to Recovery

The relatively few, isolated incidents of oil coming ashore were dealt with quickly and efficiently, say economic developers along the Gulf Coast, but the national press never bothered to report the full story on the cleanup.

Source: Gulf Shores (Ala.) Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, what's needed is a massive and expeditious response.

by Ron Starner
ron.starner bounce@conway.com

N

ine months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and ensuing spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the people and communities of the Gulf Coast region are still awaiting the massive relief effort that has never materialized.

Yes, the oil has largely been cleaned up and removed from the Gulf's waters, estuaries and bays, and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has paid out billions in BP funds to victims of the disaster.

But the real help that is desperately needed, from Florida to Texas, has yet to arrive.

Companies are closing. People are losing their jobs. Whole industries are being shut down. Communities are cutting back services and laying off workers. And the voices of civic leaders are crying out for help.

So far, that aid has been slow in coming, if it has come at all.

"BP's first words to us after the spill were, 'We will make you whole,' " says Bob Higgins, vice president of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance in coastal Alabama. "It turned out that this was an overstatement."

Inefficiencies, bureaucratic delays and downright incompetence are all hindering the claims process that was designed to pay restitution to the victims of the spill's economic impact and help beleaguered communities recover.

"More stress has been caused by the broken claims process than was caused by the disaster in the first place," Higgins says. "Without that process being fixed, affected businesses in our region will face a hard road to recovery."

Throughout the five-state region of the Gulf Coast, a clearer picture of the oil spill's devastating effect is starting to emerge.

"The oil spill's effects are expected to last a number of years," according to Samuel Addy and Ahmad Ijaz of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama. "In the worst case, the oil spill results in losses of $3.3 billion in Alabama economic output, $971 million in earnings, and nearly 49,000 jobs for 2010."

The best case results in losses of about $1 billion in economic impact and the loss of 13,600 jobs in Alabama, the researchers conclude in their comprehensive report on the economic impact of the BP oil spill.

Whichever estimate is closer to reality, the bottom line is this: Alabama has been severely damaged by the spill and various public policy decisions and media-generated public opinion in the wake of the disaster.

'We Still Face the Perception Problem'

According to Herb Malone Jr., president and CEO of the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism agency in coastal Alabama, lodging revenue was down 41.5 percent and retail sales were down 22.9 percent in the summer of 2010 versus 2009 along the state's coast.

Adam Sacks, managing director of tourism economics for Oxford Economics in Philadelphia, extensively studied the oil spill's effect on Gulf Coast tourism in 2010 and concluded that "the interest in beach area vacations along the Gulf Coast plummeted for key destinations."

Among the hardest hit areas, he said, were Gulf Shores, Ala.; Pensacola, Fla.; and Fort Myers, Fla. Hotel bed tax collections were down sharply in Bay, Broward, Escambia, Citrus and Gulf counties in Florida, and recreational sales taxes were down by 50 percent in Franklin County, Fla.

The problem, according to economic development officials along the Gulf Coast, was the media-generated perception that tar balls were washing ashore from Texas to Florida all summer. But that was simply not the case. The relatively few, isolated incidents of oil coming ashore were dealt with quickly and efficiently, they say, but the national press never bothered to report the full story on the cleanup.

"We still face the perception problem," says Chris Laborde, an official with the New Orleans Regional Transportation Management Center and a leader of the multi-state Gulf Coast Alliance. "The perception is that we have oil-tainted beaches and seafood, and that is blatantly not true. And the drilling moratorium by the federal government is a real killer for small businesses, especially for those who sell products and services to the offshore oil and gas drilling, even for shallow draft drilling."

Jeff Helms, vice president of PBS&J in Pensacola and volunteer chairman for Florida's Great Northwest, tells Site Selection that "tourism was hit pretty hard this past summer. Our secondary industries of food and lodging were hit hard in Gulf, Escambia, Franklin, Santa Rosa and Washington counties. Gas stations and fast-food restaurants were hit too. Whenever the beaches suffer, they suffer."

The result was a lost year for tourism and economic development in Northwest Florida, he said. "The perception created by the media hit us badly. It hit our economic development pretty hard," he notes. "We basically skipped a year."

Help that was promised, in the form of relief payments from the $20-billion fund set up by BP, has not come fast enough for the businesses and communities that need it most.

The administration of President Obama took over the relief payment process last summer and assigned that task to new claims czar Ken Feinberg, the official who had earlier presided over the much-criticized relief fund for 9/11 victims.

His track record for helping the victims of the BP oil spill has been even worse, say dozens of business and community leaders interviewed by Site Selection for this article. Queries to the office of Feinberg by phone and e-mail were not returned.

"The bottom line on the claims process is that Mr. Feinberg over-promised and under-delivered," says Helms. "He did make some adjustments, after we complained, and the money started flowing a lot quicker. The problem is that these businesses along the coast were hit, and they have to make 80 percent of their annual revenue in the summer. When it takes such a long time to get your check cut, it is very difficult to pay your workers."

Lack of Accountability Frustrates Local Officials

Help is needed now so that companies can keep their workers employed and so that communities can do remedial marketing.

"If the oil spill fine money is reallocated to the coast, we will be fine," says Helms. "The problem is that we do not want to lose another year. We need some revenue to help the economic development folks reach out and let everyone know we are okay. We need the money to do marketing now, not later."

Higgins adds that the longer Feinberg waits to pay claims, the worse the situation is going to get on the ground. "It is very bad right now. We have 20 mental health people on the ground right here in Baldwin County," he says. "How do we get our arms around this, especially if we don't have the money we need to help these people recover?"

Higgins says that nothing less than a full-scale relief program from Washington is needed to help the region rebuild its economy. "We would like to see programs out of Washington that encourage investment to happen here, similar to the Gulf Opportunity Zone program after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in 2005," he says. "We need to incentivize buyers to invest in the entire five-state region."

Donna Watts, CEO of the South Baldwin Chamber, says the sooner that relief arrives, the better. "The impact to our businesses has been dramatic," she says, while fighting back tears borne of anger, frustration and a sense of loss. "The Gulf Coast Claims Facility has been worse than anything I have ever dealt with in my entire life. Our businesses are failing and closing. We are struggling every day, trying to help as much as we possibly can. The money is still not coming to Alabama. We are far, far, far from being made whole."

Appeals for help from Feinberg's office have fallen on deaf ears, says Watts. "The only person I know of who can make a difference in this small area of South Alabama is President Obama, and to get his attention right now is a difficult thing to do," she says. "We have people going out of business who have run their family business for decades. We are seeing our free and reduced-price lunch rolls go up in our schools. Our children who are classified as homeless are increasing. That speaks volumes of our economic crisis here. People are not dying from starvation, but there is human suffering going on here."

Watts wants to make it clear that the proud people of South Alabama do not want charity. "We have said all along that we do not want a handout," she notes. "We don't want to just get a check. We want to help BP save us, and we know how to do that better than anyone else. We know how to recover. Living on the coast, you learn how to do that, but we need a shot at recovery. If you give us a shot at recovery, we will make it work."

Tourism-dependent communities are not the only ones looking to Washington for relief. The hard-hit oil and gas exploration industry is desperate for help as well.

"The moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is and was unnecessary from the outset, and the delay of future drilling only adds to the cost burden that American consumers will experience in gasoline and diesel prices," says John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company and the founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy.

"The federal government is in shutdown mode," he says. "In six months, the shallow water of the Gulf has received the equivalent number of permits that it used to receive monthly, and there are zero new permits for deepwater — therefore, no new drilling since the May 25 shutdown of the industry. Meanwhile, the rest of the world keeps drilling for oil offshore in deepwater."

A Proposed Four-Step Action Plan

The Houston-based Hofmeister says that while large companies can absorb the impact caused by the moratorium, small businesses cannot. "For the small companies directly dependent on the Gulf of Mexico for most if not all of their livelihood, they are either shut down or operating on longstanding maintenance projects," he says. "The head of the Gulf of Mexico for a major services firm told me in September that they had effectively shut down payments to about 2,000 companies for Gulf of Mexico work."

When asked what was needed to prompt change in Washington, Hofmeister said, "It will take more than industry pressure to move the administration to a different permitting environment. Until American consumers pay an exceedingly high price for gas at the pump, there will be no change in policy."

What's needed to help the devastated economy of the Gulf Coast region is swift and remedial action. A broad-based aid plan should include the following:

• Expedited Gulf Coast Claims Facility payments, whereby damaged companies and individuals are recompensed appropriately and quickly. A deadline for paying out the $20 billion in damages should be set and the payment process fixed to match it.
• A new GO Zone program, created to specifically jumpstart investment in the hardest hit communities along the Gulf Coast, should be fully funded and ramped up to incentivize new investment into coastal economic development as soon as possible.
• The U.S. Department of Interior should scrap its ill-fated, de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf in exchange for a common-sense policy compiled by a coalition of private industry engineers and government scientists.
• An influx of marketing dollars targeting beleaguered industries to help them recover. This should include fishing, tourism, restaurants, recreation, lodging and other industries in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

If Washington would devote the same attention to helping Gulf Coast communities recover from the BP oil spill as it did to helping the victims of Katrina and Rita, then places like Foley and Gulf Shores in South Alabama would recover sooner rather than later.
These communities have already lost one year to the economic fallout of the spill. If they lose another, it will be only because decision-makers in Washington lacked the political will to act.

Alabama tourism dollars drop $100M after oil spill | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal

Alabama tourism dollars drop $100M after oil spill pnj.com Pensacola News Journal: "Alabama tourism dollars drop $100M after oil spill
Associated Press • February 12, 2011"

Alabama tourism dollars drop $100M after oil spill

Associated Press • February 12, 2011

GULF SHORES, Ala. — Tourists spent almost $100 million less visiting Alabama's main tourist beaches last year than the year before the Gulf oil spill, a tourism official said Friday.

The vice president for the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach tourism agency, Mike Foster, said Friday that $144 million was spent in the Baldwin County beach communities of Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan in 2010. That compares with $241 million in 2009, the year before the spill. The spending figures include money spent at hotels, restaurants and beach-related businesses, such as souvenir shops and beach chair rental stands.
"That is very significant," Foster said.

Associated Press

He said the decrease showed people, concerned by images of oil- and tar-coated sands, stayed away from the beaches. Tourism plummeted across the coast after BP PLC's well in the Gulf of Mexico blew out in April, spewing millions of gallons of crude into the sea. Crews spent weeks clearing oil and tar balls from the beaches.
Foster said the number doesn't include revenues from people who stayed in motels or hotels in nearby communities like Foley or Mobile, or those who made a one-day trip to the shore. He said it also doesn't include revenue lost from tourists who would have stayed in motels or visited restaurants across Alabama on their way to the Gulf Coast.
The loss is probably worse than the numbers show because many merchants, hotels and motels offered large discounts to spur business, Foster said.
The Alabama Attorney General's Office has filed a lawsuit seeking to recover revenue lost by the spill. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Luther Strange, Jessica Garrison, said the tourism figures would be an important part of the overall assessment of damages to the state caused by the oil spill. She said Strange is working with Gov. Robert Bentley to determine Alabama's total economic loss as a result of the oil spill.
State tourism officials said 1 million fewer people visited Alabama's beaches in 2010 than in 2009. That figure was part of an annual report on the state's top tourist attractions.
The report said 3.6 million people visited Alabama beaches in 2010 compared with 4.6 million 2009. While the number of visitors to attractions on the Gulf was down, other attractions across the state showed an increase in visitors in 2010.
Gulf State Park alone recorded 300,000 fewer visitors in 2010 than the previous year.
Advance bookings suggest more people will visit the coast this year, but the numbers aren't likely to hit 2009 levels, Foster said.
"I hope that people who come for spring break take the message home that everything is fine," Foster said.
AP-WF-02-11-11 2331GMT