Gulf Seafood Deformities Raise Questions Among Scientists And Fisherman (VIDEO)

While the true extent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was not known for about 4 years, as Al Jazeera notes in the video above, the repercussions of BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico may become apparent more quickly.

Discovering eyeless shrimp, lesioned fish and other mutated and underdeveloped seafood, fisherman in the Gulf are pointing fingers at the BP spill. Biologist Dr. Darryl Felder told the news agency that Gulf seafood populations are dropping at alarming rates and that species richness is "diminished."

The Gulf Restoration Network's Scott Eust explained the bizarre shrimp deformities. "We have some evidence of deformed shrimp, which is another developmental impact. So, that shrimp's grandmother was exposed to oil while the mother was developing, but it's the grandchild of the shrimp that was exposed grows up with no eyes."

Al Jazeera reports that both the government and BP maintain that Gulf seafood is safe. BP released a statement last week, saying, "Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident."

A study published last October in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that the FDA allowed "up to 10,000 times too much contamination" and didn't identify the risks to children and pregnant women posed by contaminated seafood. Additionally, the study charged that the FDA's "scientific standards [in 2010] were less stringent" than after the Exxon Valdez spill, reported OnEarth.

Government testing standards were questioned months after the spill. In December 2010, a toxicologist with a team challenging the FDA's seafood testing said, the "FDA simply overlooked an important aspect of safety in their protocol," reported MSNBC.

Despite sales dropping precipitously following the spill, the Gulf's seafood industry was given a boost after the government's Defense Commissary Agency began selling Gulf seafood products on 72 East Coast military bases in early 2011, reported AP.

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Comments

[mudshark12]

01:37 AM on 04/25/2012

Deformities are caused by Corexit!

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:09 AM on 04/25/2012

Protecting our FOOD SOURCES is EXACTLY why the GOVERNORS of the Gulf Coast States - called a STATE of EMERGENCY -
but obama would not.

[janmB]

11:46 AM on 04/27/2012

YUP was up to the Govenors to declare a state of Emergency in their respective states and notify the White House and other departments that needed to get involved.
HOWEVER-----This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again."- Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Sarah Palin actually went on Fox News to defend Big Oil companies like British Petroleum against "demonizing." Yes, Texas Congressman Joe Barton actually apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward. ......

[CrawfishFestival2]

06:57 PM on 04/27/2012

you left out a part = apologized for Obama "extorting" $20 BILLION from BP.....

[Tips for Recycling]

09:57 AM on 04/22/2012

@azman69...that philosophy is probably going to backfire on you someday. I'm an extremely healthy eater, I exercise and I've avoided all the normal childhood ailments. People always said I had a strong constitution. Then at 39 years of age I was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma. Two years later I have infiltrative ductile carcinoma. Two cancers, completely unrelated, in two years. And I never ate anything that didn't look or smell good. Good luck to you. Otherwise you'll become another case of natural selection.

As with any other news story I make an effort to research the facts. Sources like Aljazeera are likely to be biased. But there seems to be quite a bit of scientific backing for this one.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:10 AM on 04/25/2012

pretty pathetic that we have to hear more about this from an international news source.

so much for the bow to the Saudi King - did not cover controlling the media.

[djackmoss]

09:15 PM on 04/21/2012

After whats been pulled out of the Gulf, do you really believe that that fish will not end up in markets around the country? will anyone be able to trust eating fish if they don't know where it comes from?

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:11 AM on 04/25/2012

good thing there were fish farms, etc. - in Louisiana and Texas.

[djackmoss]

09:11 PM on 04/21/2012

BP and the politicos that pander to them are rich enough to eat seafood from anywhere else, while the folks along the Gulf have to deal with tainted seafood...if the chemicals were harmful to the fish, then they're not fit to eat...Thanks BP..

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:12 AM on 04/25/2012

thanks to obama

[chiara0]

08:27 PM on 04/21/2012

I'm sure they're already find a way to re-label the seafood and suggest it's the best seafood money can buy. Just like Pink Slime, we'll be seeing the likes of Blackened Goo and Gooey Savory Bits as the latest gulf seafood offerings.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:14 AM on 04/25/2012

nope, there are fish farms, etc. - in Louisiana and Texas - that can supply seafood.

*

but I do want to mention - as soon as the BP oil rig explosion occurred - my State and city was SWAMPED with seafood from COMMUNIST CHINA - coincidentally.

[azman69]

08:25 PM on 04/21/2012

Al Jazeera huh? I wouldn't believe anything they report. If it tastes good and smells good, eat it. This is just a bunch of fear mongering and i'll have none of that!

[Rick Shoaf]

12:27 AM on 04/22/2012

That's funny, because I was reading about this last year, from American news sources. Reports last year came out about shrimp showing signs of oil inside them. And Al Jazeera was no where around.

Instead of shooting the messenger, maybe you should actually read the reports from the scientists or hell.. just watch the video.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:20 AM on 04/25/2012

Seafood - fish, oysters, shrimp - is the BIGGEST industry in Louisiana - along with Tourism = restaurants and hotels.

Five years after Katrina - when the waters were replenished - and the TOP season was expected for seafood, the devastation of the Oil Rig Explosion, Massive Oil Spew and dangerous and toxic dispersant COREXIT - DESTROYED everything - Again.

We will NEVER forget - the failure of the Obama Administration to call a State of Emergency - and the ineptitude of the Obama Administration in dealing with the Massive Oil spew - to prevent it from becoming the worse environmental disaster in US history.

It was needed - for his RADICAL AGENDA - to pitch his Cap & Trade legislation.

[Lawrence Bullock]

01:13 PM on 04/22/2012

You can have my share. Good luck to ya. And about Al Jazeera: azman69, huh? I wouldn't trust anything they say. It's a bunch of head in the sand and I'll have none of that!

[JREX--TheRexReport]

02:20 PM on 04/21/2012

Tumors actually contain great protein

[snowballinhell]

05:42 PM on 04/21/2012

And the chemicals that produce the cancers are still in the body to add more than just good nutrition to the seafood.

[mudshark12]

01:33 AM on 04/25/2012

Yummy, CANCER, Yum Yum! Then Puke & Die!

[snowballinhell]

01:08 PM on 04/21/2012

Anybody notice that DeepwaterHorizon spewing thousands of tons of oil and gas burning hotter than a blow torch stayed afloat for four or five days (all steel hull which had holes blown in it) without melting the steel and sinking? Finally sank due to firefighting water causing imbalance that could not prevent sinking? And did not happen in one or two hours like the Twin Towers did on 911? Just wondering if anyone noticed that.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:24 AM on 04/25/2012

I sure did = sink the evidence.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:27 AM on 04/25/2012

they surely silenced the survivors of the oil rig explosion. Holder ran down there asap - and from what I KNOW the men had to sign documents before they would be "released" to their families.

[snowballinhell]

03:24 AM on 04/25/2012

wonder if they knew what they signed.

[Kenz300]

11:35 AM on 04/21/2012

It is time for BP to to start producing some of those naturally occurring microbes that eat oil in the Gulf and use them to help in the clean up.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/08/study-oil-eating-microbes-plentiful-in-gulf-oil-spill.html

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:36 AM on 04/25/2012

there were NUMEROUS environmentally-friendly dispersants to use - and INVENTIONS devised by people in the area of the Gulf Coast - for such disasters. The Obama Administration would not approve of any of it - or explore the capabilities.

Guess who owns stock in Nalco, the company that manufactures COREXIT?

*

In 1979, COREXIT was banned for use in the USA - bc it was too toxic. It has been BANNED by the United Kingdom of Great Britian - for DECADES - but British Petroleum used Corexit.

BP used it in the USA and was allowed to continue using it - when the people in the Gulf Coast were reporting the visible damages from the use of Corexit =
Massive amounts of TURTLES were coming ashore gasping - dying; DOLPHINS were found dead - and washing ashore; The CORAL REEFS were dying - and are now DEAD.

[snowballinhell]

01:37 PM on 04/28/2012

I got to see your posts which were scrubbed. I agree. The BP DeepwaterHorizon oil well blow out in the GOM was this president's Katrina. Unfortunately, unintended as it was, it was a test to see that he could do a better job than his Republican predecessor and when the result was in, he couldn't. I agree.

[daibee]

08:28 AM on 04/21/2012

Remember the Simpsons cartoon episode where Homer's boss, Mr Burns ate the 3 eye fish in front of everyone...That cartoon was written long before this disaster and I would like to see FDA, BP execs and any idiot who agrees with them to do the same: eat it, swallow it and do not vomit out the GULF SEAFOOD eaten!!!

[CrawfishFestival2]

02:24 AM on 04/25/2012

or ....when serving a glass of the tainted water - in the movie Erin Brockenvich = I hope you enjoy the water you are drinking - since nothing is wrong with it.

[Wake Up Call]

04:26 AM on 04/21/2012

Such incidents are the natural outcome of a Corporatist Oligarchy, which is what America has turned into. If you don't know what the terms "corporatist" or "oligarchy" mean, then you can thank the American public school system, rated was one of the worst in the entire world at the high school level of academics.

[CrawfishFestival2]

02:13 AM on 04/25/2012

thank Unions and the dumbing-down of society

[Musicated]

05:15 PM on 04/20/2012

Corporations have virtually no interest in the common good since profit is always the bottom line and it's clear that the FDA will say and do anything, as was already mentioned, that the money directs them to. As a nation we are indescribably nasty and dismissive to our citizenry in a way that makes me wonder just what is the point of this country anymore. This is not about ideological differences but crapping on one another like some feudal class system, not the democracy that I thought stood for the benefit of all. People will now say anything that gets them theirs and screw the rest and that is horribly depraved.

[Kelly Mulhall]

09:01 PM on 04/23/2012

A sad but honest truth. If only more people would pull their heads out of the sand and realize this. Everyone's too busy watching reality shows or playing angry birds to actually get off their asses and do anything

[FaceReality2]

01:12 PM on 04/20/2012

The ecological damage from the Exxon Valdez is as bad now as it was then. The ecological damage to the Gulf will not be rectified 100 years from now. But BP, the politicians, and the government will tell us otherwise.

[CrawfishFestival2]

09:45 PM on 04/27/2012

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html#ixzz0vIJZW3gW

[mjwca]

12:59 PM on 04/20/2012

The FDA has become a total, corrupt joke. They will sanction anything big corporate money tells them to.

[CrawfishFestival2]

01:00 AM on 04/29/2012

The FDA, The EPA, The Department of Education - should be completely closed down.........