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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mutant Shrimp and Fish in Gulf of Mexico

eyeless shrimp.JPG

From Fox News:  On April 20, 2010, the BP oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and released 152 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  During the cleanup, BP released at least 2 million gallons of chemical "dispersant" into the gulf to break up the floating oil.  The chemical dispersants released are solvents that are quite toxic in their own right.

Commercial fishers have since been discovering large numbers (hundreds of pounds) of eyeless shrimp and crabs and malformed fish in the gulf.  

The original report from which Fox News sourced its article was published by the Middle East news network Al Jazeera on their English language website.

Evidence suggests a link between the dispersants and the new crop of eyeless marine life, but the government and BP say that the chemicals are completely safe:

BP has maintained that Gulf seafood is safe, saying in a statement, "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."

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