PORT FOURCHON, La. -- They call the oil spill the biggest environmental holocaust for the nation, and scientists at the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP), said finding heavy oil at nearby Port Fourchon is a frightening threat to the vulnerable wetlands behind it that form the estuary.
"First thing that went through my mind is, here we go, clean up mode,"said Dean Blanchard, BTNEP Habitat Enhancement coordinator.
"We have a huge seafood nursery," said BTNEP Water Quality Coordinator Andrew Barron. "It is estimated that about 20 to 40 percent of all the nation's seafood spends of its life in our estuary."
The 4 million acre estuary stretches from the Mississippi River to the Atchafalaya. The scientists say heavy oil in these marshes could be devastating for plants and marine life.
"It can create some massive damage, and massive impacts to some of the marsh life out here," said Barron.
But they say oil coating the marsh grass will not necessarily kill it.
"If your marsh grass doesn't get covered from tip to bottom into the roots, if it gets halfway covered, either from the top, or from the roots above," Blanchard said, "it has the potential to survive."
They say passive clean up operations, like allowing tides to flush out the oil, could be better than others that could trample the marsh. They are concerned the oil pollution could accelerate coastal erosion, and worry about the effects of toxic chemicals in dispersants.
But they don't think the oil spill, even worst case, will destroy the estuary.
"The estuary is going to make a come back with time," Barron said.
They say long experience with smaller oil spills, as many as 1,000 a year, shows natural processes do work to restore the marsh, but how long could it take?
"We're probably looking best case scenario, maybe at a minimum of a year, and worst case could be well beyond that," Barron said.
But even though they believe the estuary will eventually recover, the scientists worry about the survival of the businesses that depend on it.
"The commercial industry, will that survive?" asked Barron. "Where will they be in a year? Where will they be long term? You know, shrimping, oystering, crabbing."
"You also have your recreational fishing, you have your tourism, everybody is going to be impacted on this thing," added Blanchard.
These scientists know they could spend the rest of their careers studying the impact of this oil spill.
