Interesting article on flesh eating bacteria.

What really concerns me in that study is that the same area of water has 10X the amount of Vibrio in it since the oil spill. How can BP not be held responsible for that?

sj said:

What really concerns me in that study is that the same area of water has 10X the amount of Vibrio in it since the oil spill. How can BP not be held responsible for that?

Click to expand...

In order to be held responsible you have to prove cause and effect - not just statistical correlation.

From what I understand the same bacteria consumes oil and tar balls in the water.. it always has been present and at high concentrations around some of the natural occuring oil leaks on the floor of the gulf..thats why they detected high levels on the tar balls..the bacteria is feeding on them. Now the question will be can a lawyer prove there are more cases now than in years before the bp spill??? I'm not sure..I know of the two this summer..but also of three in one summer in the 90's.

I understood the study to say that microbes feed on the oil/tarballs and the Vibrio feed on the Microbes. If I understood it right. You can bet there are a lot of lawyers watching this very closely.

Gotta say some dummy ripped a toe nail off Saturday and forgot about it till he hit the water that night.

I know of 6 this summer along the gulf coast. It's horrible I'm even scared to get in the water with the chance of getting something.