For decades we have read about the need to drill offshore and take advantage of the resources under the floor of the Gulf of Mexico to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It seems ironic the estimated 210,000 gallons of oil leaking per day that will devastate our coast comes from a drilling rig owned by Swiss-based Transocean Ltd. And operated under lease from London-based BP Plc. (British Petroleum, Public Limited Company).
From all reports, this catastrophic event will eclipse the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March, 1989 off Alaska's coast.
An aerial photograph taken by National Geographic shows a small portion of the size of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A NASA Aqua satellite give a view of one part of the leaking oil some 48 hours ago approaching ecological fragile wildlife refuges in Louisiana.
Louisiana has already rushed through authority to allow fisherman to harvest shrimp. The blowout comes at a particularly bad time for the shrimp industry, coinciding with the very start of the season as shrimp stocks make their way from the estuaries out to sea.
The Gulf coast region ranks as one of the most productive U.S. fisheries, especially for shrimp, accounting for more than 70 percent of a nationwide catch valued at $442 million in 2008, the last year for which federal figures were available.
Along with shrimp are oysters, calms and other seafood the region is famous for not just locally but internationally.
Could an American owned company avoided such an accident? We'll never know. But, in this one person's view, it is American coastal waters, it is our ecology at risk and that of an entire industry. Perhaps, leases to allow for offshore exploration and drilling in U.S. waters should be limited to U.S. companies; whom, I believe, would have a vested interest in the stewardship of the waters and adjoining land.
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