Sounds almost like "Aliens ate my babysitter*" but apparently true.

It is noted that natural oil seepage in "the gulf" produces about an
Exon Valdez oil outpute each year.
It now appears that naturally occurring deep water microbes are
present that are specialised in 'eating' such natural bounty and that
they have already largely destroyed a significant prt of the oil
output from the recent spill.

Various obvious questions are being asked but the basic aspects of
this report sound to be sound.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38834330/
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/technology/7819007/microbes-ate-bp-oil-deep-wa=
ter-plume-study/

Ref: David Daniel
__________________


A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe suddenly is flourishing
in the Gulf of Mexico and=A0 gobbling up the BP spill at a much faster
rate than expected, scientists reported Tuesday.

Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater
dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled since the explosion
of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Also, the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the
water, researchers reported in the online journal Sciencexpress.

"Our findings ... suggest that a great potential for intrinsic
bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep-sea," lead researcher
Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
in Berkeley, California, said in a statement.

The data is also the first ever on microbial activity from a
deep-water dispersed oil plume, Hazen said.

Environmentalists have raised fears about the giant oil spill and the
underwater plume of dispersed oil, particularly its potential effects
on sea life. A report just last week described a 22-mile-long
underwater mist of tiny oil droplets.

________________

* If that title rings a bell then uyou are probably older than some
and not as old as others :-). ie the younger and older recipients of
this may find that phrase  not very meaningful.

--=20
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