University of Georgia professor Samantha Joye is leading a team of scientists to investigate how much oily material is left on the ocean floor and what the effect is on the surrounding area. The team is using the submarine Alvin, the same submarine used to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic.

Despite the government's estimate that less than 25 percent of the oil remains, scientists attest that it is not all gone, but rather settled at the bottom of the ocean. Joye states that she saw about three to four inches of material on the ocean floor. On top of this, scientists believe that the spill has caused the deaths of all marine life for 80-square miles on the sea floor. Despite these findings, BP is challenging the government's oil spill estimates, claiming they are too large by as much as 50 percent in an effort to lower the fines they face.

Ever go to the beach and not think of slapping together a sand castle? And who doesn't enjoy the feeling of wet, warm sand between her toes?

According to federal authorities who recently intercepted an oil-hunting reporter on a Florida beach, those activities have been deemed "illegal."

The officers' legal revelation (which is not actually true) came as something of a surprise to Dan Thomas, reporter for WEAR ABC 3 in Pensacola, Florida, who was visiting the Gulf Islands National Seashore for a special report.

Shovel men at the ready, it did not take Thomas long to uncover splotches of oily crude less than a foot below the surface. Within seconds, his report had shown that BP's cleanup efforts, which have been limited to just the top six inches of sand in most cases, are not entirely effective.

That's when a representative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed up, demanding he produce a permit to use shovels on a public beach. More...

The oil companies' conduct in the Gulf of Mexico are the "equivalent of getting drunk on a fifth of liquor, driving 80 miles an hour through a school zone and killing a child," says Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire radio host and attorney representing Gulf residents in their lawsuit against BP. But despite such conduct, BP wants to keep drilling, claiming it'll cost jobs if they don't keep pumping out oil.

Papantonio joins us via Skype to give us the latest on the lawsuit, the spill, and the oil--which doesn't just go away, no matter what the companies would have us believe.

In a dramatic illustration of regulatory capture, a new report from an Interior Department review board has found that poorly trained, ill-equipped and overextended federal inspectors who were supposed to be policing the nation's offshore oil and gas drilling facilities were routinely bullied by industry representatives and were often undercut by their managers when they reported safety violations.

The review board was appointed after a BP rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, causing the worst accidental offshore oil spill in history. Its report paints a devastating picture of the Minerals Management Service, the agency now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).

Rather than take issue with the report's findings, BOEMRE's new reform-oriented director, Michael Bromwich, has responded with an implementation plan aimed at fixing the problems.

John M. Broder writes for the New York Times:

The report recommended hiring dozens of new inspectors and giving additional training to those already on the job. It also urged a more robust system of enforcement, including greater authority to cite violations and impose fines....

"To a substantial degree, we fully concur with the recommendations," Mr. Bromwich said in a telephone briefing for reporters. "Without knowing them in advance, we're moving to implement the bulk of them."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday that his department will spend $29 million to increase the number and training of offshore drilling inspectors, upgrade enforcement and take others steps to improve oversight.

He told reporters he hopes to hire hundreds of new inspectors to supplement the 60 or now responsible for about 3,500 drilling rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Congress recently authorized the emergency spending.

The lack of management support for inspectors was one of the most striking findings of the report. Here's what it found:

• Most inspectors interviewed stated that industry often exerted pressure on them to minimize reporting violations during inspections. For example, personnel on a facility may make comments such as "there goes my bonus," or "my wife is sick and I'll lose my job." Inspectors also reported that if they issued INCs [Incidents of Noncompliance], operators would sometimes call BOEMRE managers and complain about inspector behavior. For example, one inspector, new to the job, reported that on his first day on a platform he issued several INCs, and the company called to complain about his "rude and unprofessional behavior" before he returned to the office.

• During interviews, inspectors expressed the need for more effective leadership in daily operations and for greater management support when faced with pressure from industry....

• Operators that receive INCs may appeal to the District Manager to have the INC rescinded. A number of inspectors felt they were not sufficiently supported by their management and that in some cases management would give the benefit of the doubt to industry. Inspectors do not always have the tools necessary, such as sufficient training and adequate equipment (e.g., laptops), to effectively support the issuance of INCs.

• Inspectors who issue many INCs reported that they are especially subject to industry pressure, often without sufficient management support. A majority of the inspectors reported receiving ethics training. However, unique circumstances exist in the GOM [Gulf of Mexico], where many people are part of the oil and gas community and inspectors are likely to have worked in industry and to have family members in the business. For example, one inspector reported arriving at a facility to find that his brother, who worked for the operator elsewhere, had been flown to the facility to act as the compliance officer. The inspector informed the company that he could not conduct the inspection with his brother present. Another company representative worked with the inspector during that day.

And while unannounced inspections are a critical element of any serious inspection regime, they were nearly unheard of in the Gulf:

Ninety percent of inspectors responding to the survey identified a critical need for more unannounced inspections. However, unannounced inspections are rarely performed. In the GOM, such inspections are limited by United States Coast Guard (USCG) security restrictions on facilities that are required to maintain a Maritime Security plan (MARSEC facilities). District offices are required to give 24 hours notice prior to conducting an inspection on these facilities. A 2007 GOM directive also states that a 20-minute followed by a 5-minute notification should be given to all other facilities. A 2005 GOM directive required only a 5-minute notification. The definition of what constitutes an unannounced inspection and the conditions under which it could be conducted also varied from office to office. For example, one district office indicated that inspectors could land on some platforms without any notification, while another district office stated that a 20-minute advance notice would be given. Others interviewed stated that the requirements for helicopter pilots to call ahead before landing precluded unannounced inspections. Finally, documents, including the 2007 GOM directive, indicate the existence of special notification arrangements between BOEMRE and certain companies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In just 10 days, the U.S. government will close the period for public comments on whether they should reclassify the loggerhead sea turtle on the Federal Endangered Species List to guarantee them stronger protections than they currently receive.
You can make the difference for loggerhead sea turtles by joining in the chorus of support for our nation's most well known sea turtle species.
Loggerhead sea turtles are the most abundant of the sea turtle species that reside in U.S. waters, but for decades they have been at risk from loss of nesting habitat, degradation of their marine habitats, and entanglement in fishing gear.
Now they also face the added struggle of waters polluted by millions of gallons of oil from the BP oil disaster.
Speak up today -- your voice can help achieve the goal of generating 20,000 messages nationwide in support of stronger protections for this species.
Loggerhead sea turtles are in dire need of stronger protections and your voice is needed to make the overwhelming public concern for this species clear to our public officials.
The deadline for action is fast approaching -- please help keep up the pressure to get loggerhead sea turtles the stronger protections they deserve.
Thanks for all that you do to protect wildlife!
Sincerely,
Sue Brown
Executive Director, NWF Action Fund
info@nwa.org
Twitter: @wildlifeaction
Friend us on Facebook

*More on the oil rig explosion: http://blogs.nwf.org/arctic_promise/2010/09/breaking-new-oil-rig-explosion-in-gulf-of-mexico.html

St. Petersburg, Fla. - Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well — the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as "plumes" and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.

Until now, scientists had circumstantial evidence, but lacked that definitive scientific link.

The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes' creation.

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

"What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is," said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. "It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe." More...