Part 1: Gulf Fishermen Finding Sick Fish, Few Crabs and Shrimp

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Part 1: Gulf Fishermen Finding Sick Fish, Few Crabs and Shrimp

April 19th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Part 1: Gulf Fishermen Finding Sick Fish, Few Crabs and Shrimp

“In 25 years of fishing off Louisiana, I’ve never seen fish before
with this ugly blackness and the fish die.”

– Gulf fisherman

Black discoloration on a dead Red Snapper caught in Gulf of Mexico
off Alabama coast. Discolorations also found on other fish such as
Vermilion Snapper, Tomtates, Gray Triggerfish and Golden Tilefish.
Other problems are fin rot, lesions and lump deformities,
some filled with parasites. Image © 2011 by Florida fisherman.

Normal Red Snapper without black
discoloration. Image © by Atlantic Seafood Market.

Reprint April 18, 2012 / May 26, 2011 Milton, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana – A year ago on April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up killing 11 workers on the platform. Nearly a mile below the rig, the Macondo well erupted. Between that day and four months later at the end of July 2010, at least 206,000,000 gallons of crude oil gushed uncontrollably into the Gulf of Mexico, while 770,000
gallons of Corexit were pumped and sprayed into
the Gulf to allegedly “disperse” BP’s massive oil slick.

The Environmental Protection Agency asked BP to stop using the dispersant Corexit 9527 because of short and long term concerns about its toxicity. Despite the EPA’s request, BP continued to spray Corexit 9527 until that ran out and BP switched to Corexit 9500.
Both dispersants can kill incubating sea life. Other concerns include the potential for the dispersants to mutate into new chemical forms, evaporate and fall back to earth as rain.

In November, I interviewed biologist Charles Fisher, Ph.D., at Penn State about his underwater research seven miles southwest of the Macondo oil disaster site where he found “at least 90% of the corral were dead or dying,” something he had never seen before in his extensive dive experience as a marine scientist.

By February 2011, marine chemist Elizabeth Kujawinski, Ph.D., at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reported, “The Corexit dispersant in the Gulf is sticking around. Key dispersant chemicals underwent negligible or slow rates of biodegradation.” Also in February at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference in Washington, D. C., University of Georgia microbiologist Samantha Joye, Ph.D., presented photographic evidence of tube worms, crabs, brittle stars and starfish dead and covered with oil and dispersant gunk on the Gulf seafloor ten miles north of the BP Macondo oil disaster site.

From January through March 2011, at least 134 bottlenose dolphins – both babies and adults – were found washed up dead on Gulf beaches and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed in early April that six of those bodies had BP Deepwater Horizon oil on them. That is at least four times the average yearly dolphin mortality rate and nearly half were newborns or young dolphins. During that same period, 38 sea turtles also washed up dead or stranded.

What the public did not know was that also in the past few months some Gulf fishermen began hauling in Red Snapper, Vermilion Snapper, Golden Tilefish, Tomtatesand Gray Triggerfish that have abnormal, dark discolorations that were mostly black, and some purple. The sick fish also have lesions, tumor bulges and fin rot. By mid-May, scientists at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge had determined that lesions on Red Snapper found within 20 miles of Orange Beach, Alabama, were infected with two bacteria: Vibrio vulnificus and Photobacterium damselae. Both bacteria are contagious among fish and Vibrio can make humans very sick if eaten in raw seafood. So right now, eating anything from the Gulf raw might be a bad idea and NOAA says cooking infected fish should kill the bacteria.

But NOAA Fisheries was not acknowledging there were an abnormal number of sick fish in the Gulf until a recent NOAA email was sent to the Gulf Council and that was picked up by the Pensacola News Journal that headlines on May 24, 2011, “NOAA Confirms Sick Fish in Gulf.”

May 24, 2011, Pensacola News Journal,
Pensacola, Florida.

But since February 2011, Gulf fishermen noticed the unusual discolorations, lesions and lump deformities on some of the fish they were catching and one fisherman was so concerned, he started taking samples of the dead, diseased fish to Gulf Council meetings where he was basically ignored. Local, state and federal agencies have apparently been towing a public relations line that all is OK in the Gulf, while Gulf residents say they are afraid to speak out about their fears that Gulf shellfish and fish aren’t safe to eat and are even afraid to talk about being sick themselves since the oil spill for fear of ridicule and attack. In fact, when the EIN News Service in November 2010 reported a story that questioned the safety of the Gulf seafood after the BP oil disaster, NOAA Public Affairs Officer Christine Patrick asked EIN News to withdraw the story insisting that “the veracity of the federal government seafood safety protocol or results are not in question by any qualified scientist.”

However, Prof. James Cowan in the Louisiana State University Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences has been trying to study the sick fish since at least February 2011 to date and sees a pattern of sick fish distribution that “correlates with areas most impacted by the BP oil spill.” When a Press-Register Editorial in Mobile, Alabama, headlined, “Too early to draw conclusions from fish tests,” Prof. Cowan replied on May 22, 2011, to the newspaper this way:

Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU: “The editorial story about red snapper is either naive or deliberately misleading. I have been working on the issue for at least 3 months now, and indeed there are some things we still do not know about the evolving red snapper issue in the Gulf of Mexico. But there are pieces of this puzzle that we do know now that considerable time and expense have been devoted to trying to define the problem.

We do know:

1) fish are getting sick and we know the pathogens that are infecting the fish pose a threat both to human health and fish populations; the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is now involved in the inquiry. One of the pathogens is a Vibrio bacteria (Vibrio vulnificus) that has had a long history of making people sick. In fact it is the same pathogen that accumulates in oysters and causes seafood poisoning. Any fisher that catches a red snapper that does not look right (has sores or dark spots on their flank) should handle the fish with care, especially if you have open cuts on your hands, including puncture wounds from spines. This is most important for children or those with immune systems that are compromised by liver disease, etc.

2) the distribution of infected snapper appears to be limited to the eastern Gulf from the Mississippi River mouth to Panama City

3) multiple species are involved, especially red and vermilion snapper.

We don’t know:

1) what proportion of the fish population is infected and whether the numbers are increasing or decreasing.

2) whether or not there are hot spots where infection rates are higher; surveys are being designed now to try to address the issues identified above.

3) whether or not the infection is related directly or indirectly to (BP’s) Deepwater Horizon.”

Prof. James Cowan emailed me images of some sick fish he has collected for lab analysis under a 3-year research project funded by Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries. Golden Tilefish have been collected off the Louisiana coast; Red Snapper have been collected off the Alabama coast; and Vermilion Snapper have been collected off the Panama City, Florida, coast.

So far since February 2011, the diseased fish collected for laboratory analyses have
ranged from the mouth of the Mississippi in Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama,
and the waters off Panama City, Florida.

Two Vermilion Snapper fish caught in Gulf of Mexico off Panama City,
Florida, that have strange and unidentified purple discolorations.
2011 image courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

Fin rot on Red Snapper caught in Gulf of Mexico off Alabama coast.
2011 image courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

The lump (yellow dot) on this Vermilion Snapper contain millions of small parasites
(Myxosporea) that have apparently invaded because the snapper’s immune system is
weakened by unknown cause. 2011 image courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

Golden Tilefish with two dark spots above fin that are symptoms of the bacterial diseases
apparently taking over weakened immune systems of some fish in the Gulf of Mexico.
Prof. Cowan: “See two dark lesions on fish’s side. I have delivered this to an LSU
fish pathologist. This fish was caught in deep waters of the western Gulf off Louisiana. There
were many more lesions on other fish that were visible as the fish were being offloaded.”
2011 image courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

Left: Early stage of infection in Red Snapper. Right: Dark established lesions in Red Snapper.
2011 images courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

Diseased fish liver. Prof. Cowan: “It appears to be a form of necrosis;
i.e., deposits of fat cells that are laden with toxins. Many forms of toxin are lipophilic
(lipid-loving molecules).” 2011 image courtesy Prof. James Cowan, Ph.D., LSU.

Also studying samples of sick Gulf fish is William Frank Patterson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology at the University of West Florida, in Milton, Florida. Prof. Patterson told me he understands in recent cruise research by Prof. Cowan along Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that as many as 10% to 12% of fish showed the disease symptoms, but so far in his own research closer to Florida Prof. Patterson has only seen 2% of the fish diseased. Both scientists wonder if the bacteria will spread more rapidly as temperatures in the Gulf warm this summer.

Interviews:

William Frank Patterson III, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. of Biology, Univ. of West Florida, Milton, Florida: “In winter 2010/2011, we started to get reports from some fishermen that fish were being captured offshore that had various skin issues such as lesions, fin rot and some dark discoloration.

Late winter/early spring, we started to see fish on our video samples that also had issues with fin rot and some pigmentation pattern issues. Fishermen continue to catch fish that have these symptoms and in other species besides Red Snapper – such as Tomtate, Vermilion Snapper, and Golden Tilefish.

In a recent cruise off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama, I’ve heard reported as many as 10% of the fish had some issues. We’re not really sure at this point how prevalent these symptoms are. We don’t know ultimately what the cause of the symptoms might be, but we are quite concerned about their occurrence.

Fishermen that have been helping us – they are really in a bind because if in fact the symptoms we are seeing are somehow related to BP’s Deepwater Horizon and petroleum that was on the shelf and the water column, that needs to be documented. To look at the long-term potential chronic effects as well as the recovery.

So the livelihood of many, many folks is derived from the water and this needs to be documented. They are on the water much more than scientists are but there is the catch, the conundrum they are in because if things are reported widely now, then that can really hurt the markets. So it’s a tough situation for many of the fishermen to be in and we are thankful as scientists that many fishermen have stepped forward and have really helped the effort to try to document some of these issues.”

Louisiana Gulf Fisherman’s Recent Experiences

One fisherman who has worked Louisiana Gulf waters for 25 years is so alarmed by the black discolorations on fish he’s been catching that he contacted Prof. James Cowan at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Prof. Cowan is working independently from Prof. Patterson, but both biologists are trying to find out what is killing the Gulf fish. For the past month, the Louisiana fisherman has been delivering dead fish samples to Prof. Cowan. The fisherman has asked for anonymity because he thinks BP Oil is buying cover-ups and manipulating attacks on people trying to tell the truth about the deteriorating Gulf condition that is unlike anything he has ever seen in a quarter century of Gulf fishing, crabbing and shrimping.

Louisiana Gulf Fisherman for 25 years who has requested anonymity to avoid BP and Gulf political repercussions: “We’re seeing areas we used to be able to catch fish in and they are just gone! And now we’re starting to see lesions on the fish. We’ve never seen them before. These are black and just this year is the first time we’ve ever seen anything that is black on the fish like that.

Black discoloration on a dead Red Snapper caught in Gulf of Mexico
off Alabama coast. Discolorations also found on other fish such as
Vermilion Snapper, Tomtates, Gray Triggerfish and Golden Tilefish.
Other problems are fin rot, lesions and lump deformities,
some filled with parasites. Image © 2011 by Florida fisherman.

We used to fish an area called Sackett Bank. It’s around the mouth of the Mississippi Canyon. We used to catch Vermilion Snappers there and various Groupers. Now once you get on the west side of the Mississippi River about 30 miles continuing east, there just aren’t anymore – whether they died, left or both? We’re just not sure.

Sackett Bank is located at 28.63°N and 89.56°W, about 12 miles east
of the Mississippi Canyon. The bank is nearly circular and covers an area of
7.07 square kilometers. Image courtesy GulfBase.org.

WHERE ARE YOU HAVING TO GO NOW TO FISH?

Well, basically we’re fishing further and further to the west, fishing more off towards Texas.

WHEN DID YOU START SEEING THE TILE FISH WITH THE BLACK MARKS THAT ARE THE INFECTIONS ON THEM?

That just began in the last month (April to May 2011).

WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING THAT YOU SAW THAT MADE YOU SAY, ‘SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE’?

Well, the first thing that I saw that I thought was really wrong wasn’t even involved with fishing – it was just running along at night and I had all my lights on under the boat – big flood lights – and I was running along and nothing showed up on my radar. All of a sudden, I saw a big, white wall in front of me and I pulled my boat our of gear and I slid through a great big foam line. It was about 6 feet high out of the water and about 7 or 8 feet wide and I had never seen anything like that in my entire life!

WHAT CAUSED IT?

My guess would be dispersants and detergent-type action made a big foam line, almost like the little sea foam that you see at the beach, but huge!

WHERE WAS THAT?

Oh, that was about 50 miles offshore and close to 100 miles from the site.

FROM THE BP OIL SITE?

Right.

100 MILES WHICH DIRECTION?

West northwest.

WHAT DATE APPROXIMATELY WOULD YOU HAVE SEEN THAT BIG WALL OF FOAM?

I’d say that was late August of last year – 2010.

NO FISH WERE THERE AND IT TOOK UNTIL NOVEMBER FOR YOU TO SEE FISH THERE AGAIN?

Right.

WHAT MADE YOU CONTACT PROF. COWAN?

Well, the fact that I’d seen these lesions on other fish that friends of mine had caught on the east side of the Mississippi River – I realized immediately what it was because I had seen it on other fish that other friends of mine had caught. I know that Dr. Cowan has had thousands of days at sea experience and he, just like us, has never seen these black lesions on fish before. I’ve fished out of Louisiana for 25 years since 1985, and I’ve never seen what I’m seeing this year – ever!

Where Are the Gulf Crabs and Shrimp?

COULD YOU TELL ME ALSO ABOUT THE CRABBER?

Well, in our area we have a lot of shrimpers and crabbers and I heard it had been going downhill and I asked my friend, ‘How’s the crabbing?’ He pulled 170 traps and he had 9 blue crab in them. Normally he is catching 700 to 800 pounds – but he had a total of 9 crabs!

IT MEANS THAT THE CRABS ARE GONE.

Yes, they are gone. They’ve been gone for a month or so.

ARE ALL THE CRABBERS EXPERIENCING THIS COMPLETE ABSENCE OF CRABS?

Yeah, and the shrimpers because when they drag their nets, they catch crabs in them, too, and I’m beginning to get worried about what’s happening to our Gulf. I’m asking everybody what they are seeing and nobody is seeing any crabs.

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE?

No. No, never!

WHAT IS THE SITUATION WITH SHRIMP?

Well, it seems to be pretty slow. It doesn’t seem like they are doing that great this year. And the biggest concern that people are saying right now is that BP Oil is going to blame it on the fresh water from the Mississippi River, but the water hasn’t got here yet.

WELL, WE KNOW THAT THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WAS NOT FLOODING A MONTH AGO WHEN YOU STARTED SEEING THE TILE FISH COMING UP FROM DEEP WATER WITH BLACK LESIONS ON THEM.

Oh, all the fish experiencing that problem were way ahead of the river! But our concerns are a couple of years down the road when we are concerned about juvenile fish and the reproductive process in the fish, plus possibly losing a big percentage of our fish.

SO WHAT YOU MEAN IS – IF THEY ARE DYING OUT NOW, THE ADULT FISH YOU HAVE BEEN SEEING WITH ALL THE LESIONS AND THE FIN ROT AND DISCOLORATIONS BEING REPORTED NOW BY SCIENTISTS, THAT YOU COULD END UP WITH NO JUVENILES IN ANOTHER COUPLE OF YEARS BECAUSE THE WHOLE POPULATION OF ALL OF THE FISHERIES COULD BE GOING DOWN?

That’s correct. We feel we have already lost a lot of juveniles from last year and possibly the really young fish from the year before. We’re just not sure that it’s contagious from fish to fish? And if it’s contagious from fish to fish, then we stand to lose a whole fishery much like the herring fishery in Alaska.

AFTER THE EXXON VALDEZ?

Correct. They lost their entire fisheries and basically they started with the same problems having lesions on the fish.

THERE WAS ONE FISHERMAN WHO SAID TO ME, ‘I LOOK AT BP AND THE GOVERNMENT AS MAKING A DECISION TO SAVE REAL ESTATE INSTEAD OF FISHERIES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.’

What I would say right now is that our government has a blind eye to it. They are not even looking. There is a lot of money being spent to promote ‘safe seafood,’ and stuff like that in the Gulf, but there is no money being spent to address the problems that we’re seeing in the Gulf.

SO THERE IS KIND OF A WHITEWASH FOR THE TOURIST BUSINESS WHILE THE GULF ITSELF IS SICK?

Oh, I think that would be an understatement at this point knowing what I know. I’m scared to death because I’m starting to realize that we really do have some serious problems in the Gulf of Mexico.

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE POLITICIANS ARE NOT PUTTING THIS AS A PRIORITY TO HELP RIGHT NOW?

They want this problem to go away because there are so many other problems out there that we’re just a minor problem in the mix of everything.

BUT IF THE FISHERY BUSINESS IN THE GULF HAS NOTHING TO FISH, THEN IT MEANS THERE WILL BE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE OVER THE NEXT TWO TO THREE YEARS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO WHO ARE WITHOUT JOBS.

Oh, yeah! I know people today that are without jobs. The crabber that I talked about – he no longer has a job. He cannot catch enough to make a living. And that’s what I’m concerned about in my future.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT IS GOING TO BE THE FUTURE OF THE GULF IN THE NEXT FIVE TO TEN YEARS?

I think we’re going to have a lot of problems – quite a few fisheries, especially the ones that are based in the central Gulf of Mexico – are going to see some real problems! There’s not going to be a lot of fish to catch in five years and that’s my biggest fear. Knowing what I know now and knowing about the infection in the fish, I have to say that it’s looking darker and darker for us. I’m worried about being able to make a living three years from now.”

Continued in Part 2 with Prof. James Cowan.

Earthfiles welcomes comments from Gulf of Mexico residents, fishermen and others. All requests for confidentiality are respected. Please email: [email protected].

More Information:

For further reports about the BP Macondo oil well disaster and other Gulf marine life issues, please see other Earthfiles reports in the Earthfiles Archive:

• 03/30/2011 — Corexit and Crude Oil Still in Gulf A Year After BP Disaster; Marine Life Dead and Some People Sick
• 02/23/2011 — Part 1: BP Oil and Corexit Dispersant Still In Gulf of Mexico.
• 01/31/2011 — 2010 – 2011 Extreme Weather
• 11/23/2010 — Dead and Dying Coral South of BP’s Gulf Oil Disaster Site
• 07/06/2010 — BP’s Gulf Crude Oil Nearly 40% Methane – Will Huge Dead Zone Follow?
• 06/12/2010 — Could BP Oil Disaster Threaten Gulf Power Plants?
• 02/25/2010 — Lionfish Invaders Are Eating Up Other Marine Life in Florida Keys, Bahamas and Bermuda
• 11/20/2009 — Red List of Earth Life Facing Extinction Keeps Growing
• 06/21/2008 — Updated June 25, 2008: Increasingly Acidic Pacific Coast Waters Threaten Marine Life
• 02/23/2007 — Scientists Hope “Amphibian Arks” Can Save Frogs and Toads
• 04/08/2006 — Recent Caribbean Coral Reef Die-Off Biggest Ever Seen
• 07/20/2002 — Extinctions of Earth Life Are Accelerating Rapidly
• 04/01/2002 — Scientists Investigate Dark Coastal Waters of Southwest Florida

Websites:

Gulf Oil Blog by Samantha Joye, Ph.D., Univ. of Georgia: http://gulfblog.uga.edu/

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: “First study of dispersants in Gulf spill suggests a prolonged deepwater fate”:
http://reefrelief.org/2011/01/first-study-of-dispersants-in-gulf-spill-suggests-a-prolonged-deepwater-fate/

“Fate of Dispersants Associated with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es103838p

“Perspectives on the Unfolding Gulf Spill”: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/830

Penn State, November 5, 2010, “Scientists Discover Dying Corals”:
http://www.science.psu.edu/frontpagenews/news-and-events/2010-news/Fisher11-2010

Penn State Science Photos from the NOAA Lophelia II 2010 Expedition:
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/photos/research-photos/biology/fisher-photos/

Prof. John Kessler, Texas A M: http://tamunews.tamu.edu/2010/05/26/prof-heads-out-to-study-gulf-oil-spill-with-first-nsf-grant/

EIN NEWS: “NOAA Official Asks EINNEWS to Withdraw Story Questioning Safety of Gulf Seafood”
http://www.einnews.com/pr-news/215998-noaa-official-asks-einnews-to-withdraw-story-questioning-safety-of-gulf-seafood

NOAA Lophelia II 2010 Expedition: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/welcome.html

U. K. Mail Online “Gulf Is Dead and Coated in Oil”: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358861/BP-Gulf-oil-spill-Shocking-images-prove-seabed-STILL-coated.html

Wikipedia On Corexit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corexit