Obama Swims in Gulf — or Maybe Not

By Doug Powers  •  August 15, 2010 10:35 AM

**Written by Doug Powers

A couple of days ago, President Obama said that he’d take a dip in the Gulf of Mexico to prove to America that the water in the Gulf was safe for swimming in the wake of the oil leak. He also said that there would be no press allowed in the area for his swim because the last time he took his shirt off with reporters around he ended up on a magazine cover that now doubles as wallpaper in Chris Matthews’ dressing room.

But maybe the White House didn’t want any press photographers around because the wrong angle would give away the fact that Obama wasn’t in the Gulf at all.

According to the White House website, Obama swam off Alligator Point, which is not in the Gulf, but rather in Saint Andrews Bay.

If Glenn Beck said he swam in the Gulf but was actually in the Bay, it would be splashed all over Media Matters by now. A good portion of the media didn’t care to do as much geographic parsing as they no doubt would have if they were writing about Bush:

Reuters: Obama swims in Gulf, says beaches open for business

AFP: Obama, daughter swim in Gulf in act of reassurance

CNN: Obama takes plunge, swims in Gulf

An Associated Press writer was one of the few to notice or care about the difference between the Gulf and the Bay:

The president’s dip happened away from the media. The White House released an official photo, but The Associated Press does not publish such handout images. According to the White House, the Obamas swam off Alligator Point, which is in Saint Andrew Bay, not the Gulf. 

Swimming in the Bay instead of the Gulf was actually a wise move, because at the same time Obama was swimming in the Bay to prove it was safe to swim in the Gulf, eight miles away, a man who was swimming in the actual Gulf drowned (the Gulf beach was closed in that area due to a riptide).  And many people are coming out of the bay after wading with infections and sores…

Naturally, TOTUS 1 and TOTUS 2 accompanied the president to Florida in order to let Americans know that the Gulf is open for scripted rhetoric:

Hat tip:  MichelleMalkin.com

Washington is telling you that it is safe to fish that birds won’t touch and many are washing up dead all over the Gulf and the Atlantic.  The First Family has vacationed all over the country and the world for days to weeks… but only spends 27-hours on a trip South of the Gulf for a staged photo-op, in a safe bay… not the gulf water, and the rest of the time far from where the problems are… telling the rest of America to head on down and spend time and money on contaminated water and fish…  Think about it!!

Dead Fish Washing Up Everywhere Due to BP Oil Spill and Dispersants

Dead fish are washing up everywhere.

For example, numerous dead fish washed ashore in Massachusetts a couple of days ago:

Dead fish had washed up in New Jersey yesterday.

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish washed up today in New Jersey, and even the birds wouldn't eat them:

(The second report in this video compilation - referring to a ripped fishing net - is actually from Virginia, some 210 miles from the scene of the first report in New Jersey. The size of the Virginia fish incident was much smaller than the one in New Jersey.)

And they have washed up in Mississippi as well.

And see this:

And this:

Scientists attribute the dead fish to low oxygen levels in the Gulf of Mexico and side affects if the dispersants.

Indeed, scientists have been warning about this for months. For example, on May 16th, the New York Times wrote:

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”

The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.

As I pointed out in June, the high methane content in the BP crude also depletes oxygen:

As CBS notes:

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

As Kessler also points out:

This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history.

A U.S. scientist says that methane levels in the Gulf are "astonishingly high", that 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the oil spill, high enough to create "dead zones" devoid of life. Methane depletes oxygen, and the scientist noted:

At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters.

Another scientist writes:

Researchers studying the [plumes] have found concentrations of methane up to 10,000 times greater than normal and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent below normal.

And see this, this and this.
This unprecedented release of methane into the ocean could kill all life within large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico.

In addition, millions of gallons of Corexit have been sprayed in the Gulf. Corexit contains oil, propylene glycol and a host of other chemicals. Propylene glycol depletes oxygen from water. See this and this.
Of course, separate and apart from its oxygen-depleting properties, Corexit is itself toxic to fish. Given that even seagulls won't touch the fish that are washing up today, the fish should be tested for Corexit poisoning.
Note: If you are confused as to how the oil spill could affect the East Coast, please see this.

Global Research Articles by Washington's Blog

 

Bobby Jindal at Rally… part I

Bobby Jindal at Rally… part II

Videos: Jindal Calls Obama’s Actions in Gulf a ‘War’ on Louisiana

Governor Bobby Jindal gives a speech at the Rally For Economic Survival in Lafayette, Louisiana. Over 11,000 people gathered at the Cajun Dome to protest what they say is an assault on Louisiana’s economy by President Barack Obama.

“The fact that the federal government can’t do its job shouldn’t cost thousands of Louisianans OUR jobs.” … Gov Bobby Jindal