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NEW ORLEANS - Federal scientists said Friday extensive sampling seabed Gulf oil too small to collect quantities and concentrations lower than harmful levels found Mexico except in the vicinity of many BP.
Coast Guard report independent scientific contrast say oil spillage of BP extensively damaged the seabed and killed Coral Sea and many benthic animals as tubeworms fans.
"We do not find any recoverable quantity of oil" bottom marine, said Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft. "We are dealing with barely detectable amounts of oil in the parts per billion in many places".
He said that minute quantities of oil well fall limits of pollution, except for the region within a radius of 1 1/2 miles from the BP, wells where the oil is linked with pumped for drilling mud into the well of BP to cap it.
BP, located approximately 50 miles from the coast of Louisiana was plugged in September, but not before more than 170 million litres of oil leak in the Gulf.
Again, said government scientists report Friday is a guide to the coast guard and the cleaning teams not assess the spill to ecosystem damage.
Coast Guard report is a summary of 17 000 samples of water and sediment taken from May to October. Report says no broad potential cleanup was justified and efforts should concentrate on residues of tar and oil buried in the sand along the shore.
Publication of the report coincides with Zukunft transfer of supervision of Captain Lincoln Stroh cleaning. Coast Guard also said he would travel in response to long term, supervised by the regional coast guard units.
Oil in sediment samples could not be dating to BP well except for those taken close to the well, said the report. In many places, traces of oil may have come from other sources, such as oil natural seeps and even other leaks.
Since August 3, the report said less than 1% of the water and sediment samples exceeded the levels that the Environmental Protection Agency considers harmful to aquatic life.
But Charlie Henry, Coordinator of scientific support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, even very low levels of oil could "latent, in the long term chronic effects" have on marine species.
Scientists have been cautious and even skeptics on the last report.
Ian r. MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University, said a scuba diving recently found what appears to be lots of oil and animals died on the ocean floor at a very close location where the Government has declared that it barely find oils.
"Went to the same place and saw many oil", says MacDonald. "In our samples we found dead abundant animals." He noted that various - qualified researchers - people may get different answers. »
MacDonald believes that an area of 80 square miles of floor Ocean autour well been damaged by oil.
Ernst Peebles, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida said researchers found abnormalities on the floor of the Gulf. "History (of what is happening) on the bottom is just beginning," he said.
The report was welcomed by BP as evidence the Gulf has done a solid return.
"The scientific evidence in this report are consistent with our findings that beaches are safe, water is safe and the seafood is safe," said Mike Utsler, Commander of the BP cleaning.
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