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The Gulf oil disaster put a national spotlight on Louisiana’s long-running battle with coastal erosion. From freshwater diversions to barrier island restoration, the state and its citizens have long used any and every method available to slow down wetland loss and help reclaim the state’s vanishing coast.

Every January for the past 20 years, thousands of Louisiana residents have also sent their discarded Christmas trees down to the wetlands to join the battle.

Christmas tree recycling started as a state-funded program in Louisiana in 1990. The trees are used to make barriers that prevent erosion and help limit the impacts of wave action.

The branches and leaves of the trees help keep sediment in place similar to the way sea oats do on beaches. As it creates a natural levee, it helps fortify the marshes and allows aquatic plants to grow more easily in the calm pools behind it. The idea was adopted from the Netherlands by Louisiana State University researchers and studies have shown that Christmas tree fences can build up an inch of sediment every two years.

Marnie Winter, director of the Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs, said that since 1991, more than 750,000 trees have been recycled in the Barataria Basin. Around the first week of every year, the parish collects curbside trees, transports them to the marshes and uses volunteers to help place them in the marsh. While it helps restore small areas of land, Winter said the biggest benefit of the program is bringing awareness to the public.

“It brings the plight of out wetlands out into the public and gives locals a feeling like they are doing a small part to fix the problem. People usually make sure they get their tree on the curb in time,” said Winter.

That awareness of coastal land loss has grown significantly since the start of the Gulf oil disaster but tree recycling has been sidelined in much of the state this year because of a loss of funding. The state cut the $175,000 program out of the budget this year, saying that it did not yield meaningful results and was not the best use of resource for restoration.

Nevertheless, some parishes are continuing the program on their own dime and through the help of volunteers. Those include programs in the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Goose Bayou near Jean Lafitte and in Bayou Gauche.

Robert Moreau, manager of the Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station in Manchac, is moving forward with the recycling program through help from sponsors and Southeastern Louisiana University. Turtle Cove, which participated in water monitoring of the lake during the Gulf oil disaster, has placed more than 2,000 Christmas trees in the Pass Manchac and Jones Island area since 1995. Moreau said they have not only prevented some marsh loss but have helped grow approximately 8 acres of land in one area where tree efforts were combined with marsh grass planting.

“When you deploy these things, they create a sediment trap and really help the shorelines with erosion protection. We’ve seen the benefits and know it’s a good program,” said Moreau.

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As the Gulf oil disaster unfolded during the summer, 37 percent of the Gulf of Mexico was eventually closed to commercial fishing and as early as August, evidence of contamination was already found in blue crabs. While most of the waters have since reopened to fishing, NOAA closed more than 4,200 square miles of Gulf waters to Royal Red shrimping. Mixed signals and ongoing new discoveries leave many wondering what is really happening in the food chain.

Louisiana, where the oil’s impacts have been most profound, produces nearly one-third of the seafood consumed in the United States. Government officials from the local to federal level have been eager to show that the seafood is safe by eating it themselves and staging displays of approval. President Obama ate Gulf seafood when visiting the area during the summer and in early December, the White House made another signal by buying 2,000 pounds of Gulf shrimp and crabs to serve at their holiday parties.

The multi-billion seafood industry on the Gulf Coast spans from restaurants and processors straight to the hard-working men who pull the crab, shrimp and oyster straight from the waters. Commercial fisherman Nicky Alfonso has been fishing out of the coastal community of Delacroix for more than 25 years. When his fishing waters were shut down in May 2010, he eventually turned to BP’s vessel of opportunity program, using his boat to transport and deploy boom in Plaquemines Parish. Now that he’s returned to fishing, he said regaining the public’s trust is a top priority.

“I do think the seafood is safe to eat. There is more testing done on our seafood than on any other food in the United States right now,” said Alfonso.

The FDA and NOAA recently reported that less than one percent of the 1,735 seafood tissue samples had any trace of dispersants. The 13 tissue samples that did show dispersant residues were well below the government’s safety threshold for seafood of 100 parts per million for finfish and 500 parts per million for shrimp, crab and oysters.

“The rigorous testing we have done from the very beginning gives us confidence in the safety of seafood being brought to market from the Gulf,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., Under Secretary for Commerce and NOAA Administrator.

Like many fishermen, restaurants and locals along the Gulf Coast Alfonso express a strong confidence in the safety of the seafood. But not all here are in agreement and some say that government standards are too lax or that their testing ignores important toxins. The government tests for a number of toxic compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) but some say that the testing is not adequate. Ed Cake, Ph.D, President of Gulf Environmental Associates in Ocean Springs, Miss., points to the absurdity of the “smell test” as an unreliable and unscientific way to test for such chemicals.

“The FDA and NOAA are relying on tests which depend on human noses to deter the odor of very small amounts of these chemicals. We can’t smell these carcinogens, the only thing that could do that is hounddogs,” said Cake.

Cake is one of the few biologists to express concerns over the safety of Gulf seafood. He had recommended that consumers only eat seafood from outside of the affected areas and points to other disasters as evidence that food chain effects can take years to unfold. In Price William Sound, it took almost 5 years for effects to show in the herring population and Cake said 31 years after the Ixtoc oil disaster in Mexico, clams, oysters and mangroves there have still not returned to their original conditions.

“We’re only seven months into this and we don’t just know how these compounds are working their way through the food chain. We know that many of the animals that we consume biomagnify or bioconcentrate those chemicals in their systems,” said Cake.

Cake’s comments have put him at odds with many biologists, some of whom he said are too tied in to the local industry and “feeding from the state trough as their jobs depend on them following policy.” Down on the front lines, Alfonso said he trusts the biologists’ decisions and he too calls for constant monitoring and testing. That will not only ensure that the public is not eating tainted seafood, it will help instill the confidence that the industry has been trying to rebuild since the start of the disaster.

“I think it is important that we keep testing the seafood for the next five years that way it will build the confidence up for people who don’t think they should eat it,” he said.

National Wildlife Federation's Maura Wood examines oil in a Louisiana marsh.

Since the start of the Gulf oil disaster, the emergence of oil into the marshes of Louisiana has been one of the most pressing environmental concerns.

Currents and high tides can push oil deep into a marsh, saturating grasses, smothering plants and infiltrating the complex root systems which keep the fragile environment in place.

Clean-up crews have been using a number of techniques to cleanse the affected areas but experts say in some cases the best option may actually be to let the marsh heal itself.

As of late-August, approximately 108 of the state’s 5,700 miles of wetlands had been hit by oil. Some of the most heavily hit coastal marsh areas were in Louisiana near Grand Isle, Venice and eastern Barataria Bay.

At Bay Jimmy in Plaquemines Parish, large amounts of oil have come in direct contact with plants and grasses. Those plants survive in the salty environments by taking in oxygen through their leaves then transmitting it down to the roots. When its leaves are covered in oil, it essentially smothers the plant and when the plants that hold the marsh in place die, the marsh quickly falls victim to erosion.

There are a number of methods for cleaning up marshes, including:

• Vacuuming oil out with suction hoses.
• Removing it by hand.
• Cleaning and raking or burning it in place.

Could Cleaning Cause More Harm Than Good?

The Catch-22 of cleaning marshes is that while oil can wreak havoc in these fragile environments, the impact of humans going in there can do even more damage. Doug Inkley, senior scientist at NWF, said that the simple act of walking in the marsh can damage plants and stir up the soil. Bringing in heavy equipment, boats and an army of workers into a coastal marsh environment can have a more profound impact than the oil itself.

“It mixes up the different soil horizons, destroys vegetation, roots, kills organisms and is just not a good option. In some cases, it may be best to let the marsh heal itself, although the best option is to not let it get there in the first place,” said Inkley.

The U.S. Coast Guard and BP contractors laid out nearly two million feet of containment boom in the early summer to try to prevent oil from reaching the marshes. While it saved some areas from oiling, it actually trapped oil in other areas and made the situation worse.

Irving Mendelssohn, a professor at the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University, said now that the oil is already there, anything that can cause more penetration of the oil into the soil is going to make the problem worse. Mendelssohn identified other options such as in-situ burning which can be done when there is a few inches of water over the marsh to avoid burning plant roots.

Vacuum Barges Removing 30,000 Gallons of Oil a Day

Another less intrusive option is using low pressure washing to flush oil from vegetation. The risk with that technique is that if the flow of water is too strong it will disturb and displace the soil.

“When there is not a lot of oil and the natural microbial activity has the ability to degrade it, then it may be best to [leave it in place]. The major reason for removing oil is when the volume is higher and there is a risk of it being transported elsewhere [via currents or tides],” said Mendelssohn.

Although it is a slow process, vacuuming oil with a suction hose has proven to be one of the least-intrusive and most effective ways of removing oil. In Bay Jimmy, vacuum barges have been removing up to 30,000 gallons of oil per day. Floating around the edges of the marsh, they can remove oil from the outskirts without causing further damage to the grasses.

Debate Over Shoreline Cleaners

There are also new shoreline cleaners on the market, a type of dispersant which manufacturers claim are 100 percent biodegradable, non-toxic and can be used in some marsh environments. Some of these products include HydroSOLVE and Evolve CM301. While demonstrations show they appear to effectively clean marsh grasses, Inkley advises against the use of any products or dispersants that have not been thoroughly tested.

“We’ve already seen what [negative impacts] dispersants can cause. I don’t think we should be trying anything in a marsh that hasn’t been thoroughly tested,” said Inkley.

Randy Lanctot, executive director of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, said that techniques should be carefully chosen and fine tuned to the area where crews are working. In some areas that might simply be to leave things as they are. Lanctot said while Louisiana’s marshes have never seen an oil spill of this magnitude, tar balls and smaller spills are nothing new in the region.

“Some areas have been through this stuff before and survived. In places where there is minor oiling, I think [the marshes] can heal themselves and we’re soon going to find out how quickly,” said Lanctot.

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In a Cape Cod marsh that was heavily oiled decades ago, the damage has been persistent. In this video, NWF looks back at how another oiled wetland has been slow to recover.

Oil & Boom in Louisiana Marsh, June 2010

A number of large fish kills in Louisiana have left many wondering whether they were a result of the Gulf oil disaster. Thousands of dead Menhaden in canals and large bull redfish washing up on beaches have locals pointing fingers at BP. But authorities at both NOAA and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries have yet to document that any fish have been killed as a direct result of the oil.

Some locals in Louisiana are claiming there have been an abnormally high number of dead fish in local waterways since the start of the Gulf oil disaster. In late-May, New Orleans photographer Jerry Moran ventured down to the small fishing community of Grand Isle, La., after he heard reports of a large fish kill. Following the “stench of death” Moran eventually wandered over a small levee and into a patch of grass where he found “mounds of dead fish.” The discovery included dozens of large bull redfish and a decapitated dolphin.

“There were more flies than I had seen in my life. I think some of the [clean up contractors] were just throwing and piling them up back there,” said Moran.

Moran found more dead fish when he returned to the scene in late-October. What he found may be part of larger fish kills that could be happening in areas that are out of the public eye. Moran documented all of his findings with photos and videos at his Web site.

A number of large fish kills have been reported since August. This included a large kill on August 22 in St. Bernard Parish at the mouth of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. In that kill, there were between 5,000 and 15,000 dead fish which included pogies, drum, speckled trout and redfish. At least three other large fish kills were reported in waterways in Plaquemines Parish and in September and in Long Beach and Cat Island, Miss., in August.

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Fish kills are not uncommon in the waterways of Louisiana and some parts of the Gulf Coast. Randy Pausino, assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said they are typically caused by hypoxic (oxygen depleted) water and Louisiana is rife with these so called “dead zones” where low oxygen levels can cause widespread death. An especially hot summer, combined with high river levels and a surge of freshwater into the marshes through diversions could partially explain what may seem like more fish kills than normal this year.

“We consequently had a huge hypoxic zone this year. Enough wind can pull that closer to shore and anything that is in there where all the oxygen is sucked up, is going to die and come to the surface,” said Pausino.

With millions of gallons of oil & dispersants entering the Gulf during the summer, many question whether they could have played a role in the kills. P.J. Hahn, director of Coastal Zone Management for Plaquemines Parish, said the recent kills were a little uncharacteristic from what normally occurs. Hahn said that while they are not uncommon, they are usually limited to Menhaden (more commonly known as “pogies”) which often die in hot water and enclosed bays. This summer however, Hahn said they found other fish in the kills including trout, redfish, alligator gar and catfish.

“Pogies I can understand, but those other fish I found it odd that they ended up dead. It was a variety of fish and there were a number of things that looked suspicious. What was not normal was the size and frequency of the kills,” said Hahn.

Hahn said that the kills in Plaquemines all happened within eight days of each other. While he doesn’t necessarily attribute the kills to the Gulf oil disaster, he questions the reason and calls for more testing.

Pausino said there is a rigid protocol for responding to fish kills. Agents respond by taking water samples and measuring parameters like water depth and temperature. If it is clear that there is any oil, gas or toxic substances in the water, it is immediately reported to the Department of Environmental Quality. He said that one of the biggest problems in responding to the recent fish kills is that the dead fish can deteriorate rapidly in the warm waters, making it difficult to get fresh samples.

“I can not tell you that oil had absolutely nothing to do with the kills but we have not been able to document it. We could never get a fresh enough sample. In some cases, people would call the press long before they’d call us,” said Pausino.

Monica Allen, a spokesperson for NOAA, also confirmed that the organization has not documented any fish in federal waters that have died as a direct result of the oil.

Michael Murray, a toxicology expert and staff scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, says that hypoxia has been a huge issue in the area for years. Murray said that if fish died in the area as a direct result of oil, there would likely be residual signs of oil in the fish tissue. He also said that the hypoxia could be exacerbated by oil in the area but testing that theory could be difficult.

“As the microbes decompose the oil, the oil levels themselves will go down but also oxygen levels as well through that process. It seems like you would find some evidence of the oil as well if the two were tied together,” said Murray.

Learn more about the National Wildlife Federation’s response to the Gulf oil disaster at NWF.org/OilSpill

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Its closure was welcomed by many in 2009 but the channel is a prime example of how manmade canals have caused catastrophic erosion in the state.

What happens next may serve as a model for how such channels and canals may actually be used to replenish what they destroyed.

Manmade Channel Sped Wetland Oil Infiltration

Louisiana’s wetlands have been cut apart over the years by the oil and gas industry. Between the early 1900s and the 1980s, the more than 9,000 miles of canals were cut through Louisiana’s wetlands. As they opened up into the Gulf of Mexico, they provided a direct avenue for salt water to move deep into the wetlands, increasing erosion and wreaking havoc with the natural order.

During the Gulf oil disaster, such manmade channels also served as a highway to bring oil straight into the heart of the wetlands.

MR-GO wasn’t created for the oil industry but as a shortcut for manufacturers and importers in New Orleans. Since was authorized in 1956, there has been outcry from residents of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish that it would exacerbate saltwater intrusion and offer a direct path for hurricane storm surges to pour into the city. It did exactly that in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina with more than 20 levee breaches that had a large role in flooding more than 80 percent of New Orleans.

Randy Lanctot, director of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, said the MR-GO has been tearing apart the surrounding wetlands for years. The growing width of the channel, saltwater intrusion and destruction of swamps to build the canal created a manmade disaster that has continuously shrunken the map of Louisiana.

“We ended up with an extremely long deepwater channel cutting right through an area of wetlands that no longer got nourishment from the river and was already in decline,” said Lanctot.

600,000 Acres of Habitat Impacted

According to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Comprehensive Habitat Management Plan (pdf) from 2006, the MR-GO has impacted over 600,000 acres of habitat in Louisiana. This includes the loss of esturarine wetland, the annual dead zone in Lake Pontchartrain and the shift from lacustrine to estuarine. Although built at a width of 650 feet, it had grown to an average width of over 1,500 feet by the time it was closed. John Lopez, PhD, director of the Coastal Sustainability Program at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said that the canal has cause major alterations to the hydrology in surrounding areas with the funnel for saltwater intrusion being a death blow to some habitats.

“The cypress swamp in the central wetlands and most of that swamp has died off. Just about everything was altered by the hydrology of the MR-GO,” said Lopez.

Helping Wetlands Rebound

The MRGO Must Go Coalition, which is comprised of members including the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, has campaigned since 2008 to push the Army Corps of Engineers to close the canal. Since the canal closed in March 2009, the group has promoted restoration of the surrounding wetlands. Amanda Moore, project organizer for the NWF’s Coastal Louisiana Restoration Project, co-authored the report Mister Go Isn’t Gone Yet, which highlights recommendations on what needs to be done.

Some of those recommendations include reintroducing freshwater to parts of the marsh through a diversion and restoring channel banks and land bridges to prevent further erosion and wave damage. The report also calls for restoration of the Central Wetlands, a 30,000-acre area near the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

“We’re trying to figure out the best way to restore the area. To restore a lot of the major ecological functions, to restore some of the critical landscape features like the Biloxi marsh and shore up the bank lines,” said Moore.

Freshwater diversions may offer the biggest promise. The plan proposes the reintroduction of freshwater at Violet as a top priority. It would bring in freshwater from the Mississippi River to build and sustain wetlands in the Central Wetlands Unit, Biloxi Marshes and along Lake Borgne. The diversion could also deliver sediment that could be directed to Proctor Point, an important wetland area along the MR-GO levee. That could help re-establish a forest to provide some storm surge protection.

Lopez said that while the canal’s closure was the first step in addressing the problem, the canal itself can be used to rebuild the surrounding wetlands if used properly.

“We have already seen in the past year the changes in salinity and some indications of the hydrology going back to what it was pre MR-GO. That channel is still there and I think there is potential to use that positively,” said Lopez.

With an estimated 172 million gallons of oil and 2 million gallons of dispersants put into the Gulf during the disaster, toxins will likely remain in some areas for years. Peter Hodson, PhD, professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Biology at Queen’s University specializes in fish toxicology and said some of the most concerning compounds are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), many of which are highly carcinogenic. While they are metabolized by vertebrates like fish and birds, they can build up in the tissues of invertebrates such as crabs and zooplankton because these organisms can’t excrete them very well.

“There is a big difference when you cross that line between having a backbone and not having a backbone. Invertebrates will build [toxins] up in the tissues but fish can excrete it,” said Hodson.

The fish will eventually feed on those invertebrates and absorb some of the toxic carcinogens but because the compounds are secreted so readily, there is little risk of carcinogenic chemicals working their way high up the food chain.

Nevertheless, the most dangerous impacts are the ones that are less apparent and may not be known for years to come. Martin O’Connell, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Orleans, expressed greater concern over what may have already happened. Because the Gulf oil disaster struck during the height of breeding season for many species, he believes that the toxicity may have had an immediate impact on eggs and larval organisms.

His team will have to collect next year’s data to find out what happened but he’s concerned that some species could show diminished future populations. One of his research crews discovered baby tarpon in the waters near Port Sulphur, Cocodrie and in the Mississippi Sound near Ocean Springs.

“It’s not like populations have been wiped out. There are signs of reproduction but the biggest risk is that we may see dips in populations in some areas years from now. When those [larval organisms and eggs] are supposed to be adults, they just might not be there,” said O’Connell.

Hodson said some of the compounds that were spilled in the Gulf were especially toxic to embryos and while those fish embryos can metabolize and excrete some of the toxins, they can also cause deformities. If toxicity to embryonic fish has already wiped out age classes in some areas, it could ultimately cause complications in the food chain.

“The problem is that those fish influence the species they feed on and also the species that feed on them. You have a whole shift in ecosystem structure and if you knock out those embryos, the effects could be years,” said Hodson.

Doug Inkley, PhD, senior wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, pointed out that in other disasters such chemical compounds have also been shown to affect everything from appetites to mating behaviors. Those effects could be detrimental to individuals in the population that could affect a whole year class. And when smaller species in the food chain are in low abundance, they can not only impact the next species in the food chain but cause ripple effects.

“If larger organisms further up the food chain were to die from starvation, it could have a very long term impact. There is also competition going on and if you kill of 90 percent of a species, another species moves in and takes its place, those remaining 10 percent may have a very hard time recovering,” said Inkley.

Bruce Stein Ph.D., a conservation scientist with National Wildlife Federation, said that such cascading effects on the food web may be one of the spill’s most lasting impacts. And what makes it so more detrimental is that the impacts may not be fully understood for some time.

“The time lag in detecting food chain impacts will present challenges for devising strategies for recovering and restoring the Gulf’s fish and shellfish,” said Stein.

Impacted coral (Credit: Lophelia II 2010; NOAA OER & BOEMRE)

“Decades and decades – if not hundreds of years.” That’s how long it could take coral affected by the Gulf oil disaster to recover, according to Dr. Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation.

The new evidence of impact on corals was discovered by scientists on a research ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The research team, led by Penn State University biologist Charles Fisher, has spent hundreds of hours over the past decades studying deep corals with remotely-operated-vehicles (ROVs) and submersibles. Fisher’s team found a colony of dead and dying hard coral species at a depth of 4,500 feet and experts say it is a revelation that they have feared since the start of the disaster. What exactly this means for the Gulf has yet to be determined but it is hard evidence confirming the effects of oil and dispersants go well below the surface.

The discovery was made November 2 approximately seven miles southwest of the wellhead of the Deepwater Horizon. Fisher says the team made the discovery after investigating an area of the seafloor where NOAA models indicated one of the large oil plumes moved and persisted the longest. The team discovered a colony of hard coral with subtle impacts but as they kept moving they eventually found a large community of dead and dying coral.

“From the moment we arrived it was evident that these corals were severely impacted by something. This is the first evidence of an impact in the deep sea to animal communities,” said Fisher. Many of the colonies appeared to be dead with little or no living tissue. There was also a notable lack of colonization by other marine life and that many of the brittle stars appeared to be very discolored and immobile.

Inkley says the discovery is exactly what he and many others have feared since the start of the disaster. How it will ultimately affect the ecosystem remains to be seen, but Inkley says that as the ecosystem degrades (now evident in dead coral on the sea floor), it will likely have a ripple impact to other organisms. “This is exactly what we feared. We suspected all along that there would be a large impact hidden underwater & we’re now seeing now seeing that,” said Inkley.

Fisher said that there is so little known about the deep sea that it is hard to determine what impacts this may have on other species or the overall health of the Gulf. The team took a variety of samples to test for the presence of hydrocarbons and for molecular evidence of genetic damage and physiological stress that would indicate exposure to oil or dispersants. Although they will engage in testing and further observation on another trip in December, he said it doesn’t necessarily mean that lab tests will provide any information.

“We just don’t know what we will find. We’re just going to go back there with an open mind and see what has changed. We want to discover new [damaged] sites and learn what the real impact was,” said Fisher.

Due to the nature and logistical difficulties in deep sea research and investigation, it is highly unlikely that teams will identify and ascertain all of the damage. The site of the discovery is at the right depth and direction to have been impacted by the deep-water plume and the impact was detected only a few months after the spill was contained. Inkley said that the effects of such deep-sea impacts may not be known for years to come but it is likely to have consequences that reach beyond the deepest depths of the ocean.

“Just given the age of these corals, it’s like chopping down a giant sequoia tree. It’s long-lived, going to take a very long time to replace and it won’t be without impact. We just don’t yet know what that is,” said Inkley.

The research was conducted as part of a four-year operation funded by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, to study corals in the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists are working from the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown and have carefully mapped and imaged the entire affected coral community so that it can be revisited in December.

Learn more about the Gulf oil disaster & the National Wildlife Federation’s response at NWF.org/OilSpill.