NOAA confirms presence of subsea oil plumes in Gulf

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been ongoing for 50 days now, and so far BP has still failed to seal the leak, despite several reactionary methods to do so. As a result, oil and gas have been flowing into the Gulf at around 17,000 barrels a day, causing oil to wash up on the Alabama beaches and threaten fragile wetlands.

From the beginning of the crisis, BP has used dispersants to separate oil from sea water, with little consideration for their toxic qualities. Despite the resistance, BP CEO Tony Heyward said there was no evidence that the underwater oil clouds existed.

However, in the past week or so, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been testing and collecting samples of sea water in the Gulf, from three separate plume sites.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said that the tests conducted at three sites by a University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet below the surface 42 miles northeast of the well site. Oil was also found in a sub-surface sample 142 miles southeast of the spill, but further tests showed that oil is "not consistent" with oil from the spill. Lubchenco said the water analysis "indicate[s] there is definitely oil sub-surface. It's in very low concentrations" of less than 0.5 parts per million. "Additional samples from another research vessel are being tested," said the report.

Unlike vessel spills, where oil rises to the surface because it is heavier than water, the current Gulf spill is different, because it is being leaked at a mile below the surface under intense pressure.

University of Georgia researcher Samantha Joyce, who headed the first team to report finding the subsea oil last month, explains it this way on her blog:

"Think of it as gas-saturated oil that has been shot out of a deep sea cannon under intense pressure - it's like putting olive oil in a spray can, pressurizing it and pushing the spray button. What comes out when you push that button? A mist of olive oil. This well is leaking a mist of oil that is settling out in the deep sea," she says. 

Joyce told Newsweek that the oxygen level was 30 percent below normal, which, while bad, wasn't an immediate concern to wildlife. She also stated concern about the effects of the dispersants being used to break up the oil.

"The primary producers - the base of the food web in the ocean - is going to be altered. There's no doubt about that," she told Greenwire. "We have no idea what dispersants are going to do to microorganisms. We know they are toxic to many larvae. It's impossible to know what the impacts are going to be."

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