Earth Equity News

Scientists Find Oil-Eating Bacteria Plentiful in Deep Gulf Waters. By John Collins Rudolf, NYTimes, August 24, 2010. "Oil-eating bacteria exist in significant quantities even in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and may be breaking down submerged oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil leak faster than previously believed, scientists are reporting today. The bacteria were found in a plume of microscopic oil droplets more than 3,000 feet below the surface, in the vicinity of BP's blown-out well, by a group of scientists... [from the] Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Their presence may have been overlooked by other researchers because the variety found in the plume do not seem to be consuming much oxygen from the water column, unlike most oil-digesting bacteria, the scientists said. In previous surveys of the plume, researchers measured dissolved oxygen levels in the water to determine bacterial activity... The discovery adds a new wrinkle to the debate over the fate of submerged oil from BP's massive well blowout."