Florida Marine Lab Becomes an Oily Killing Field

Jack and Anne Rudloe, a husband and wife science team on Florida's Panhandle, wrote this week to tell of their preparations for the coming oil onslaught. Here's their report from the Gulf Speciment Marine Lab in Panacea, near St. George Island (warning -- it's not pretty):

"Weve been working round the clock, day and night to buildout Operation Noahs Ark to retrofit Gulf Specimen Marine Lab against BP'soncoming oil disaster.

"We have pumped a hundred thousand gallons of clean, healthy Gulf of Mexico sea water into a defunct shrimp farm as a reserve before the oil disaster reaches our shore. We are striving to retrofit our facilities to function as a closed system aquarium so we are not longer dependent on drawing sea water from the bay.

"As the oil nears, and useless booms have failed to work, we are rushing to dig new drain lines, install sumps and fight against the deadline to save as many species as possible. We have purchased new tanks (but need even more), pumps, dug drain lines and are in the process of installing larger drain pipes to increase our tanks' circulation.

"Meanwhile, our urgency is accelerating, as a massive kill of razor clams and juvenile pin fish have taken place near our facilities.Blue crabs are behaving strangely, crawling out of the water onto the beachlike weve never seen before. We suspect deaths of shallow estuarine animalsmay be the result of toxic dispersants. Some fishermen have reported that the oil is thickly accumulating on the offshore bottoms outside of St. GeorgeIsland."

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