Louisiana’s Wetlands and What’s At Stake in the Oil Catastrophe

5/17/10
Orpheus Reed

Waves of rain and thunder storms rolled through New Orleans yesterday and the day before. The thick moist air and gathering heat finally burst loose and rain poured from the skies, making the air feel cleaner and cooler.

Out in the Gulf, not many miles away, the oil continues to pour out and build and threaten disaster. A friend from here who we protested with on Friday at the Federal Building, told us that her sense--from seeing the anger from fishermen at a BP sponsored meeting in St. Bernard Parish and from the continuing exposure of the government role and lying--that outrage is beginning to build among people here.

A Rich Gulf Ecosystem In Grave Danger

What is at stake here in this oil spill that capitalism has generated? What is happening and will happen more in ways we can see, ways we can’t see, and in ways that will manifest for years and decades to come? The threat to ecosystems in this area is multi-leveled and multi-layered. What is shaping up is truly an almost immeasurable crime.

The ecosystems of the Gulf are varied, rich, and multi-faceted–truly a wonder of the natural world. They also form the basis for the lives, culture, and existence for many millions of people in this region and beyond.

I don’t pretend to understand the natural ecosystems here in any great depth yet, but I am learning and want to try to convey some sense of this.

To get a taste of it, earlier in the week Larry Everest and I took a trip down to the tip of the Mississippi River Delta to Venice, the southernmost point in Louisiana. We interviewed Capt. Dave Ballay, head of a sport fishing charter boat captains group in the region. And we got a tour of the Delta’s fresh and salt water wetlands from his son, Brent Ballay, who has been captain of fishing charters for 18 years. Dave told us about how the wetlands in this area were created over millennia by floods from the Mississippi river, depositing sediments, creating a delta region of half a million acres.

At least 40% of the country’s wetlands are in Louisiana. These are interwoven ecosystems of fresh water bayous, bays, channels and marshlands. Areas where there is a mixing of salt water from the Gulf with river water (the combination is called “brackish” water) in channels, bays and estuaries, and then salt water estuaries, and then the various marine ecosystems of the open Gulf. In the wetlands near shore, there is a back and forth between the salt and fresh water with tide flow, currents and flow from the river. Beautiful and amazingly rich diversity of fish, birds, reptiles and mammals move back and forth in the environments they survive best in.

Driving into Venice, Larry and I were awed by the many wetland birds, some feeding right next to the road. We hopped out to get pictures of snowy egrets with their tufted crests, gathered here and there in bunches at water’s edge.

On our boat trip we traveled west from Venice, out through Red Pass in the Mississippi, and then moved into smaller channels that criss-cross each other throughout this areas, and then out into more open bays – 6 miles out all told. Brent pointed out areas that used to be land, but now are submerged by sea water due to the loss of land because the river is now confined and no longer building up new wetlands from over-spilling its banks and depositing new sediments. Channels have been dredged to open the area up for shipping and extraction and transport of oil. This is also contributing to the loss of wetlands, as they settle and disappear beneath the sea water. Katrina and other hurricanes have taken their toll. Another increasing cause of wetland disappearance, I am quite sure, is sea level rise due to melting of the ice caps from global warming.

According to an article in National Geographic in 2004, “since 1930 1,900 square miles of coastal wetlands—a swath nearly the size of Delaware—have vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose about 25 square miles of land each year, roughly one acre every 33 minutes.” These wetlands are not only extremely bio diverse, they also form a natural barrier protecting the Gulf coast, including New Orleans, from hurricane winds and storm surges. So their disappearance is one reason Katrina was so devastating.

Brent showed us the channels where he catches bass in fresh water, the areas where redfish live, and further out where speckled trout can be found. In the fresh and brackish water areas, marshland sediments are held together by a plant the fishermen call “roso-cane”-- a tall reed-like plant some 8 feet high or more -- that grows thick so you can’t push through it. In the salt water areas, sea grass predominates. These planets “cement” the marshland sediments and hold them together. Without them the wetlands disappear and, as Brent put it, “the Gulf would be at our doorstep.” And in the sediments algae and other microorganisms live that, along with the grasses, form the base of these ecosystems.

These marshlands also have many other plants, cypress trees, a tree the fisherman called hackberry, flowering plants of orange and purple, thistles, and beautiful white spider plants. And throughout, these wetlands are filled with incredible bird life, which we busily try to capture on film: snowy egrets, herons, red-winged blackbirds and other, ibis with their prominent long beaks of orange and brown, gulls and terns, brown pelicans sitting on old pilings and occasionally taking to flight. One of my personal favorites was the huge man o war (magnificent frigate birds) soaring in the wind over us with 7 foot wing span and occasionally sailing down to grab fish off the water. These birds have been recorded in flight for 4 days at a time. In one fresh water channel, we came across a small alligator, who we were able to get some snapshots of as he swam after a brightly colored float Brent cast out to attract his attention.

These bays and estuaries are also home to oysters, crabs and other crustaceans.
Many of the larger species, including juvenile fish, worms, crabs and other crustaceans depend on the microalgae that live in the sediments to survive. It’s been estimated 97% of all the marine species in the Gulf depend on the estuaries at some point in their life cycles. So there is a close dependence and back and forth between life in the ocean and coastal wetlands.

Imagine these wetlands filled with oil. Scientists say the grasses are pretty resilient and if just their leaves or stems are coated, they can put out new shoots. But if the oil covers and penetrates to their roots, they die and the sediments supporting this whole ecosystem can begin to be washed away. If the oil kills the algae, the food is gone for many other organisms. If some of these organisms are poisoned and die off, the algae can grow all out of control. Oil in these marshes will cause untold death to many of these wonderful species, and could cause devastation to the whole ecosystem. The oil could last for decades, mixed into the mud. The thought of all this sickening.

And the effect in the wetlands, which largely have still not been hit, as awful as it is, may not even be the worst of it.

Because this oil is coming out 5,000 feet below the ocean and also being hit with chemical dispersants (that are themselves environmentally toxic though no one is quite sure what’s in them as their components are also a guarded “proprietary” secret), the oil is “emulsified” (mixed with water). So it is spread throughout the water column--often in gooey “mousse-like” globs. It’s not all on the surface, in fact most of it is not. Much is under the surface. I’ve seen video of flyovers of the Gulf that show vast regions of red or rusty oil swaths, from the surface down. One report said, “the Gulf looks like its bleeding”.

The fact that much—probably most--of this oil is under the surface means first of all that it may be moving all over the Gulf, even into the Loop Current which can take it throughout the Gulf, onto the shores of Florida, and up the Atlantic coast. No one can see this underwater movement.

Doug Rader, a coastal ecologist with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) explains some of what is happening right now to marine life as a result of this undersea geyser of oil.

“Several things are happening. Creatures caught directly in the spill zone, especially those that live on or near the surface of the water, are directly affected. Most visible are the seabirds, sea turtles, and–potentially–the marine mammals. Less visible, but equally concerning, are the countless millions of tiny, planktonic organisms being killed, including larvae of economically important species like fish, shrimp and crabs.”

Also threatened are sea birds like petrels and shearwaters which preen their feathers to maintain their waterproofing and warmth. They can die by ingesting oil this way. Marine mammals and sea turtles face being poisoned from inhaling toxic fumes or eating other organisms contaminated with oil.

Rader says that many other deep water species--including endangered sharks and very rich and unique coral reef systems lie either directly in the vicinity of the spill or closely down current. Life at the bottom of the sea, where oil globules formed in contact with chemical dispersants are falling, may also be affected by this spill.

Stacy Small, a Ph. D. biologist on staff with EDF says,

“The spill could not have come at a worse time. It is now nesting season for many species, such as shorebirds and Brown Pelicans–and for sea turtles that lay their eggs in beach sand. It's also the peak of spring bird migration. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports thousands of pairs of nesting Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns, Caspian Terns, and shorebirds right now on Breton Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 5,000 acre wilderness area on Breton Island and the Chandeleur Islands. Migratory birds are gathering along the Gulf Coast, as well as manatees and gulf sturgeon. Highly endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles are migrating along the Louisiana coast on their way to nesting beaches in Texas and Mexico.”

“As many as 20 coastal wildlife refuges could be in harm's way, as well as pristine beaches and state wildlife areas. If this oil makes its way to Florida, the state's precious coral reefs also could be threatened.”

This is all horribly saddening and also enraging. And should fuel us to both take the level of opposition and resistance to this spill and the system that caused it to another level, and to widely bring people to see how this whole system is responsible, and that we can do much, much better--and that we have a plan and the leadership to have this kind of world.