An Alabama charter boat captain, distraught over the oil slick that is causing large-scale destruction of fish and marine wildlife along the Gulf coast, has apparently taken his own life. William Allen Kruse, 55, of Foley, Alabama, was found dead on his boat with a gunshot to his head Wednesday morning around 7:30 a.m.
BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been compared to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound ever since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank to the bottom in April. Additionally, BP’s cleanup and containment efforts in the Gulf have invited comparisons to the botched cleanup efforts in Alaska 20 years ago, which, as it turns out, weren’t managed by Exxon at all, but by BP.
Federal regulations require oil companies to prepare and submit detailed spill-response plans before they can begin drilling offshore in American waters — and rightfully so. That body of water we call the Gulf of Mexico is a rich and diverse natural resource that directly sustains a way of life for millions of residents, whether they’re employed by the multi-billion-dollar seafood and tourism industries or any business in between. Simply put, a threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystems is a threat to our economy and national security.
Much press has been given to the dire threat BP’s oil slick poses to the coastal ecosystems, marine environment, and the economies that depend on the health of both. But now another tragic extension of the oil disaster is becoming apparent – a feeling of hopelessness and abandonment that threatens ways of life and cultural traditions that give the Gulf Coast its own unique, irreplaceable personality.
Louisiana fisherman hired by BP to deploy boom and skim the growing oil mass in the Gulf of Mexico are getting sick. In the swamps and marshes in and around Batataria Bay, the fishermen-turned-BP employees working to contain the oil slick are reporting severe headaches, burning eyes, persistent coughs, sore throats, sinus congestion, dizziness and nausea.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil into the Alaska’s Prince William Sound, one of the cleanest, most unspoiled coastal ecosystems in America. More than two decades later, animals and residents continue to suffer from the spill’s devastating effects, and scientists say that it could be another 2 decades before the area fully recovers.
With more than 700 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico sucking fuel from the beneath the sea bed, many people might think it was just a matter of time before something catastrophic happened. Something like a blowout from a riser pipe a mile below the surface and a resulting gush of oil that can’t be stopped for weeks.
British Petroleum (BP) representatives have been actively recruiting fishermen in the coastal communities of South Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida to help with its oil containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Before going to work, however, the fishermen were required to sign a contract that would forfeit their right to sue BP for lost work and damages related to the massive oil leak in the future.
With federal investigations into the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon underway, more and more attention is being shifted to Halliburton, the oil-services corporation hired by British Petroleum (BP) to cement the wellhead from which hundreds of thousands of crude oil are spouting every day.
David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the Associated Press that the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is “of grave concern” to him.
“I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”
