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July 15, 2010

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Those images of the Chandeleur islands are quite telling. It is rather sad to see this operation of "destroy to protect", in which no actual protection occurs at all, anyway.

King Cnut, indeed. He would have known better.

The studies done by Samantha Joye are very interesting, especially because she is accounting for sub-surface oil, the existence of which some people are apparently denying.

I rather enjoyed your take on the FSU article. The subject matter is so interesting, but it is terrible that we learn of these things or get funding for studies only due to this ghastly eruption of crude oil. here's hoping the latest "fix' is more successful than the last.

Thanks for summarizing this! I'm really curious to find out what happens with biodegradation on shore and in the ocean. I wonder if the dispersant will be found to be harmful or helpful to degradation - harmful because it may be toxic to microbes but potentially helpful because it increases the surface area available to microbes.

Good question! There seems to be a considerable range of views on the effects of the dispersants. Their toxicity is a matter of some debate (see, for example, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6701KV20100802); perhaps their influence on bacterial activity is yet another aspect that we don't fully understand.....

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