Toxic Soup: Oil Moves into Wildlife-Rich Barataria Bay

"Toxic Soup" is a Change.org series focusing on how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacts the Gulf's seafood industry and marine life. For more posts on this issue, see here, here, here, here, and here.

Barataria Bay used to serve as a fishermen's paradise. You couldn't throw a hook into the water without coming up with a trout or a redfish, and the area boasted some of the healthiest populations of oysters, shrimp, and blue crabs. According to the New York Times, the cluster of wetlands, marshes, and bayous supports a host of wildlife, from gators to bullfrogs to black bears.

But despite the area's history as a veritable fishermen's stew, Barataria Bay is shutting down to crabbing, shrimping, oystering, and even bait fishing. The culprit, of course, is oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, which has been steadily spewing since April 20th.

Oil first moved into the sensitive region on May 20th, but didn't really start soaking into marshes and wetlands until recently. And while oil isn't exactly a blessing in any waterway, it's especially problematic in Barataria Bay due to the estuary's sensitive ecosystems and abundance of marine life. "The whole place is full of oil," fishing guide Dave Marino told the Times. "This is some of the best fishing in the whole region, and the oil's coming in just wave after wave. It's hard to stomach, it really is."

The oil spill's hard on fishermen who rely on the bay, but the crude's also knocking the estuary while its down. Barataria Bay has experienced rapid deterioration in recent years to do erosion. The problem began back in 1904, when the damming of Bayou Lafourche cut off some of the bay's supply of fresh water and nutrients. Salt water has slowly taken over the area ever since, with Barataria losing about 500 square miles of marshes, mangroves, mud flats, sand ridges, and cypress forests. Adding oil to the mix kicks the already-beleaguered bay right in the junk.

Local fishermen and groups like the National Guard and Coast Guard are doing their best to clean up oil in Barataria Bay. Relief efforts involve everything from building barriers to skimming oil to placing containment boom throughout the region. But the waterway remains closed to fishing, and it's too soon to tell just how big of a long-term impact oil will have on Barataria Bay's diverse mix of wildlife. In the meantime, let's hit BP where the company feels pain the most—its wallet. Sign our petition telling the EPA to take away BP's billions of dollars' worth of federal contracts.

Photo credit: FEMA via Wikimedia Commons