{"id":4584,"date":"2015-12-11T19:29:40","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T19:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4584"},"modified":"2015-12-11T19:29:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T19:29:40","slug":"new-data-bp-disaster-greater-than-previously-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4584","title":{"rendered":"New Data: BP Disaster Greater than Previously Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The Texas Supreme Court building. The court has established a new commission to help more low-and-middle income Texans access civil legal services. Photo: WhisperToMe\/Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas – After BP agreed to pay more than $20 billion in fines and penalties for spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, research kept under wraps during legal proceedings finally has been made public.<\/p>\n

And the damage to fish and wildlife is worse than had been previously reported.<\/p>\n

Amanda Fuller, a policy specialist with the National Wildlife Federation\u2019s Austin office, says since the challenge of restoration is so massive, federal and state agencies should work together to prioritize what\u2019s best for the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what\u2019s best for the Gulf is essentially what\u2019s best for Americans because the Gulf is basically the fish basket of the United States and drives our economy,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

The new data shows the event killed off 2 to 5 trillion larval fish – that\u2019s potentially billions of adult fish if allowed to mature.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three hundred tons of shrimp and from 4 to 8 billion oysters also were lost.<\/p>\n

Trustees responsible for coordinating restoration have published a damage assessment and a draft plan online, and are taking public comments through Friday.<\/p>\n

The report found that nearly all species of dolphins and whales living in the northern Gulf sustained injuries.<\/p>\n

At least 93 species of birds were exposed to oil, which is expected to have significant impacts on food webs across all five Gulf states.<\/p>\n

Ryan Fikes, a staff scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, says despite the enormous scale of loss, he\u2019s impressed with the plan\u2019s comprehensive approach to restoration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injuries affected such a broad array of resources that they are basically best described as an injury to the entire ecosystem, and therefore cannot necessarily be approached on a species by species basis,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

Fikes adds prioritizing estuaries and marshes along the coast will be key to bringing a wide range of species back to health.<\/p>\n

He says restoring freshwater inflow will help endangered species such as the whooping crane, as well as coastal communities in Texas that rely on brackish bays for fish, crab and oysters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas – After BP agreed to pay more than $20 billion in fines and penalties for spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, research kept under wraps during legal proceedings finally has been made public. And the damage to fish and wildlife is worse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}