Tulane researchers indicate COREXIT now in blue crab larvae from Florida to Texas

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floridaoilspilllaw.com

A report today from Fox 8 in New Orleans reveals that the “orange blobs found lodged in the bodies of tiny blue crab larvae collected from marshes that stretch from Texas to Florida” appear to contain Corexit, according to preliminary results from researchers at Tulane University.

The report says BP’s dispersant “may do more harm than the oil itself.”

University of New Orleans’ Martin O’Connell, Ph.D said, “No one really knows” if Corexit will bio-accumulate. “If you’re a small fish and you eat 1,000 of these small crab larvae and all of them have oil or Corexit droplets in them they could get into the fish — that little fish could be eaten and so on and so on.”

Pondering the future of the Gulf, O’Connell said, “I think they should be more concerned that we might be losing whole cohorts of these animals when they’re very small, and we won’t see the impact in the adults but three or four years from now.”

Florida toxicologist Dr. William Sawyer, who has been hired on behalf of sickened fishermen and cleanup workers, says “some of these chemicals are in great excess — of risk-based lethal levels — that the current hydrocarbon levels are capable of sterilizing our fisheries and estuary production zones.”

The Fox 8 report concludes, “Since so many fish and crabs feed on crab larvae, some scientists fear the oil and dispersant droplets threaten to kill critical areas in the Gulf of Mexico food web.”

USM, Tulane scientists say oil now in Gulf of Mexico food chain

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Think of what this means. What do you think will happen once the word spreads, and people begin to realize that all sea life in the entire Gulf region is toxic. You can expect a huge propaganda campaign designed to discredit reports of oil in the GOM food chain.

Sun Herald

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Scientists at The University of Southern Mississippi and Tulane University have found oil in the postlarvae of blue crabs entering coastal marshes along the Gulf Coast signaling that oil may be entering estuarine food chains.

Harriet Perry, director of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, has found droplets of hydrocarbons or oil, in blue crab and fiddler crab larvae. According to Perry, the oil appears to be trapped between the hard, outer shell of the crab and its inner skin.

“I’ve been sampling in Mississippi coastal waters for 42 years and I have never seen this,” declared Perry. “My guess is that the crab picked up this oil offshore while in the megalopal (postlarval) stage and brought the oil with it when it came back to the marsh."

Tulane researcher, Dr. Caz Taylor has found orange-colored droplets in megalopae as far east as Pensacola, FL and as far west as Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, but analysis of these droplets has not been completed.

Perry sent samples to an independent lab in Florida which confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons. While the oil was tested, it was not specifically analyzed for the markers that would pinpoint it to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. However, Perry believes it is no coincidence that the timing of the oil spill matches finding oil in the crab. The Tulane samples are currently being analyzed at their laboratory and Perry and Taylor both cautioned that additional testing will be required to relate the oil to the recent spill.

Blue crabs are more than just a favorite food for humans; they are also a favorite food of a host of fish species that live in the marsh. Speckled trout and red fish feed heavily on the crustaceans. The food chain is now affected because whatever eats the crab will be affected, and so on.

Besides finding oil in the body of the crab, Perry’s group has begun seeing small fish with oil clinging to their bodies. “Oil on the fins decreases mobility and makes these fish easy prey for other species. This is yet another example of oil being incorporated into the food chain,” she added.