The Gulf of Mexico is home to a wide variety of marine life. The Atlantic bluefin tuna spawns in these waters. Sperm whales inhabit the area year round and whale sharks frequent the northern Gulf often. Five of the world's sea turtle species are found in the Gulf of Mexico All of these marine creatures depend on this ocean for survival Yet there is another species that depends on something else something very deep beneath the sea. Drill Spill Repeat Four years ago, The Gulf of Mexico was immeasurably changed. Fans of oil sheen still drift along the sea and coastline We've been continually altering the seascape in the gulf for many years Today, the Gulf of Mexico is a virtual city of oil and gas platforms. They stretch farther than the eye can see eclipsing the horizon Whether the Gulf will ever recover still remains a mystery How we got here is not The flash of power The gleam of oil well you know what makes makes your auto run For millions of years this source of powers slept peacefully in the dark recesses of the earth. Until modern magic Loosed the liquid energy from its subterranean prison gray areas became Second only to taxes oil is the greatest revenue in the US Treasury. In 1896 the first offshore drilling rigs were established on the continental shelf near the coast of Santa Barbara, California In 1969, Santa Barbara experienced the worst environmental disaster of the time over 2.5 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the ocean after a blowout at an offshore drilling rig. Over 100 miles of pristine California beach were littered with oily dead birds and marine animals After Santa Barbara the nation was divided into pro offshore drilling and anti offshare drilling the debate became so contentious it even became a campaign topic in the 1988 presidential election. Little did we know what was waiting for us just around the corner in March of 1989 The worst oil spill in this nation's history It took place on Friday, when a super tanker owned by the Exxon Corporation hit a reef 25 miles off the port of Valdez By today 10 million gallons of oil covered a hundred square miles of ocean. We all know that human activities are changing... In the wake of the Exxon President HW Bush reacted to the public outcry and banned offshore drilling. That ban was continued by his successor and lasted for over 15 years. It wasn't until 2007 in President George W Bush's second term that he lifted his father's 17-year ban on offshore drilling We need to take action now to expand domestic oil production. So today I have issued a memorandum to lift the excutive prohibition on oil exploration in OCS with this action, the excutive branch's restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away. Oil means horsepower in a horsepower using world More power to you. I'm Bonnie Shoemaker, I'm a PhD physicist from the California Institute of Technology I brought my little plane out here in April 2010 to see what I could do to help. The scientists that I would take out, they were actually changed once I took them out there in the plane and they saw with their own eyes They were flying over miles and miles and miles of non-stop oil. That's when they realized that this is really bad. We probably have singlehandedly done the most to force accountability on these guys. Because I come back from every flight and I report I've put in 20 NRC reports The coast guard has to answer. the gas company has to answer. So it's like, oh god she flew again Here we go It was not pretty, what I was showing even around the BP site. The Deepwater Horizon there was extensive sheen contingent leakage into 2012 and I'm not sure that anyone else was monitoring that. That cost them a lot of money, to go out there and fix that. if nobody bothered to notice it the wouldn't have had to do anything. So I was not popular And what's wrong with letting people know the truth. The people of BP made a commitment to the gulf and every day since we've worked hard to keep it. BP has paid over $23 billion to help people and businesses who are affected we're paying for all spill related clean up costs. Today the beaches in the gulf are open for everyone to enjoy We're making sure people know that the Gulf is open for business The beaches are beautiful the seafood is delicious last year many areas even reported record tourism seasons I was born here, I'm still here and so is BP. We were committed to the Gulf for everyone who loves it and everyone who calls it home. I thought leave things commercial fishermen in Southeast Louisiana is not as good as those BP commercials would have you believe. My shrimp production is down still down between 40% to 60% in my area and I've been making a living in Lake bohren myself for 29 years. working on a boat, I can't do it anymore My oyster production is down at least 93% In the last 4 years I might have sold about 1500 sacks in 4 years. I used to sell that a week And 240 million of BP commercials as a lot of people believe that we're OK. We're not. People are losing it because they can't do what they want to do for a living. So you you get a choice, let's go do something else. Give you an option, we'l retrain you I say watcha goin retrain me to be a brain surgeon? or a cable installer, either one of them sucks I don't have the education to be a brain surgeon And I'm not going to install cable If you you take me and put me in the carpenter field or in welding, I'm putting somebody else out of a job. So here comes the domino effect we were telling you about. Oyster production is like the canary in a mine Again the canary dies, you in trouble, get outta there Until we get our oyster population back which filters the water We're not gonna have a good environment. Commercial fishermen You have highs and lows of economics highs and lows of weather hurricanes you know, but this man-made disaster is just lingering, we are still in trouble The spill has brought light to a lot of the issues in the gulf all of the ancillary businesses family fisheries, docks, the marinas The ice houses, the transportation companies People who provide snacks and groceries to stores. All of that is a direct reflection of what can happen when things cease But after oil spill. You know they shut recreational fishing they shut commercial fishing and that just killed everybody in this part of the world. It's affected everything it's affecting every business around That's how we count out the seasons It's oyster season and it's crab season It's crawfish season. You know and even that we're having some issues with we've taken it for granted for so long that it's it's a little disconcerting And it feels different. How you approach things. It's affecting my my life and my culture. This is not a normal situation. To see what it was like and to see what it is like today. My name's Al Sonceri co-owner and president of T and J Oyster Company Been in business here for 138 years and with my brother We've owned the business since the mid 1980s The shucking house has been in operation since 1921 you'll see today that there is no one in here, we'd have 4 people here 6 on that side and 7 over here we shuck $120 to 140 sacks of oysters a day Now it you know if we do a 3rd of that that's plenty. We're having to get what we can that is of higher quality and its limited We're not going to just sell anything We're not gonna do it under our brand we've been doing this 138 years to do something that's inferior wouldn't be the right thing to do for our families business. Well I used to get very emotional talking about this but have began to be able to compartmentalize the whole thing and not think about it as the people that worked out here and processed our oysters, we all grew up with. This cooler used to always be filled up with product I got a few shells that we shucked over the last 10 days Louisiana used to produce 40% of all the market our oysters from their public oyster grounds public grounds used to produce almost 100% of all seen and since the oil disaster those areas had been non productive more and more processors like ourselves have gone out of business and as time goes on there's gonna be less of us doing this because we can't hold out We haven't received anything from BP, we've been able and go through all those years operation our families have gone 5 generations through all those different ups and downs the wars as the natural disasters and this man-madedisaster about the biggest hurdle we've ever had to overcome. 11 men died that day Don't forget it Every one of those men they had families they had wives and parents and children. And all those families have been deprived of their loved ones. Everybody thinks about the long-term pollution in the Gulf and it's out there. But don't forget, we're talking about human lives here. The industry over and over and has proven itself to be exceedingly irresponsible irresponsibility includes covering up how much they pollute BP did not want any outside help, and expert outside help from around the world was offered And rejected And the reason they turned them down it's because they didn't want anybody to know exactly how much oil was being released from that explosion. The reason they didn't want anybody to know how much they were polluting is because the fine and is based on the amount of pollution I apologize. I do not want to live in the country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong. It is subject to some sort of political pressure That is again in my words Amounts to a shakedown. Local communities and those who joined a response team to help with the cleanup have not recovered. Their communities have not recovered Life as they know it has changed indefinitely. They may never get their lives back They were letting people swim in the water Right in front of me dispersants, they were spraying. and all the animals are trying to get out of the water. These animals were alive These suckers were crawling out of the water. Crabs, mullet, flounder, shrimp 2010 in May I went to work with BP and the tragic started in my lift In the the 3rd week of program I fell out BAm I had to go get rushed to the emergency room. I'm puking, throwing up shittin on myself, bleeding out my ass So he said son, you've been chemically poisoned. Why don't you have respirators and suits and tape around your boots and gloves. and get our contacts in stuff I said they never never give us any, he said. Yeah, I shouldn't be on this war So I would back Tomas supervised the pool blood out of me. Me and my wife a why secondhand splurge Sarwan back supervisor What does doctor told me he told me if I said anything else I'd be terminated. In 2000. 11 are supposed to well by the fall of 2000 the not so sick and it was a justice. It was all us coming across those duties nets and it's in that dispersants fixed everything touches. It sticks to the so on its sticks hands I see stick to my shoes walking house and sticking to floor it me inside And expose my family. 80 90% business was repairs because mission in Congo trolls are down turn around over a hole one they will smile Texas incident drought down because I no longer handle he used commercial gear coming out got from Mexico that's new a of news used yet found will touch you know as I don't touch me, I know it's talks There's 2 kinds of people, the ones that get sick and no one's gonna get so many different things wrong with me now. And never had problems with I've lost faith in an analysis system, I think our government is. Prostitute in itself. The people who sell should then for. People like myself. Older people. We should have been given some kind of morning they made victims of victims I was recovering from a train and arm that can recover. There's a human health crisis raging in the Gulf. They don't think a lot of people know they but its traders Gazans in people who are in very, very sick is something called Gulf Coast into Rome that people have in their so many symptoms are included in their millions neurological symptoms rumors memory loss policy our part an kidney damage here's skin damage and skin rashes years. Cancer starting to emerge causes oil to enter the body more readily correction is the the solvent opens up the cell walls it goes through it. That's why it breaks up the rail once it in the body Oriel targets every organ system the liver the kidney the heart to the brain everything the mixture of correction in oil is highly toxic, we know this There have been studies, then from previous oil spills particularly the Exxon Valdez oil spill corrects it 95-27 contains a very toxic solvent new talks ethanol it causes internal bleeding the cleanup workers were suffering from internal bleeding hemorrhaging one wing BT choose to use this toxic dispersant well first of all, they're allowed to use it. Under our current regulations 2 million gallons of corrective were released. We're not just talking down oil spill. We're talking about the chemical experiment. It was highly experimental 2 years that by you a dispersant in this major oil spill. This is an industry that has a track record for running roughshod over local and state governments and regulators And the public. Most people just aren't aware how massive of an enterprise is going on on the Louisiana coast and a lot of these pipelines were meant to be in water and salt water is very corrosive So there is, there is a constant problem with with leaking pipelines. So without those wetlands. You know that that's really what's necessary for protecting you know our coastal communities from storm surge hurricanes. You know it's now had this stretch of imagination that we could have a mortal blow out situation in the Gulf, combined with the category 5 hurricane you know washing all that oil into the short, that's what keeps me up at night. BP disaster was was predictable poorly regulated industry, you know maximizing profits cutting corners taking risks in some senses, it just happened to be VP. They're not some outlier in the industry The lessons that should have been learned from the BP disaster have nothing Dear risky practices it happen any time you're drilling in deep water. In terms of response preparedness were willfully it unprepared In fact, we would be in a similar situation that we were in 2000 and 10 when it comes to mobilize in response process is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. We would like to see them held fully accountable for causing the largest man made environmental disaster in US history The exploration side, the industry is moving far too fast for the response side and it should be the other way around. There's also this absurd honored system by the industry to report their own violations the leaks and suppose that we're finding on a regular basis. I played out in vastly underreported in terms of size and allowed Tanzania reported are. The oil and gas industry is pressuring the federal government to allow the first step in offshore drilling in the Atlantic as soon as possible This first step known as seismic air again blasting not only leads the way for risky drilling but threatens the survival of marine species, caught in the crossfire of these blasts Seismic air guns towed by ships and faster raise in mid blasts of compressed air into the ocean mapping the sea floor for deeply buried pockets of oil and gas. The blasts from these air guns are almost incomprehensible lout 100,000 times louder than a jet plane Amgen and powerful enough to penetrate several miles deep into the sea floor the dynamite like blasts are repeated every 10 seconds 24 hours a day 3 days to weeks to even months on end seismic blasts threaten not only the hearing of marine life they threaten their very survival. More than half a million people in coastal communities on the east coast of the United States depend on a healthy vibrant Ocean for their livelihoods seismic air again blasting will put the stability of the regional fisheries and those that depend on them in jeopardy Our government is currently taking steps to open the Atlantic to offshore drilling in every single ocean where we have derailed time and time again we have spell. It's scary for me here that they want put offshore oil platforms, off the coast of the Atlantic it is pretty irresponsible think they're well you know we've learned our lessons it'll be fine. If anybody would like to find out about the real cost for drilling offshore they should come see us here in Louisiana. When you don't have a life form a wreath at the reef is dead The habitats dead I use the kits ÂŁ10,000 a week We're down ÂŁ3,000 a week It's not gonna be pretty light is they know it will, will be changed. Mississippi has seen a 50% drop in the number of wetlands along our coast in a 100 year period. Any time you move in the oil and gas will move in America You then have problems. You don't have spilled. At what point are we willing to say enough. Democracy is not a spectator sport. It sounds sort of rhetorical and cliched but I've lived it. I've seen it happen. I've seen communities come together build coalitions eyeing that we can work together and we can break this cycle On January 20-7 20 4-team trade Beach North Carolina did just that this small community came together to oppose their mayor's support for seismic blasting off their coast citizen after citizens spoke up and shared their vision for the. All we now revealed in here and say, you know, I have to say I hope that you will think again at SATs testing times hard hats. I want to have to sell things just first down steeply Patel might the them there of players that mean testing In in the cost of this the incident to to trade seismic testing The group also huge residents really can't see how and I respect that you offered on its side and the, but as an elected rappers I believe through their representatives and I think people need. It was pretty clear. Was there they witnessed the public outcry. The next week they spoke for their citizens and unanimously voted to oppose seismic blasting. Resolution Council Eurovision worker is it poses who does is our mission and the role the oh. Really good. We're gonna start after and the White House makes sense. There are many other economically productive ways that we can work with our coastline so many places are heavily dependent on tourism, which employs more people. So this is about dollars and cents. You know, people need to be thinking about protecting assets that have. Our communities, our oceans our economies Our future is our choice Let's not let the wants of the few outweigh the needs of the many to your elected officials stop Atlantic drilling before it starts joined ICI a and those have already taken action and visit W W W.spilled repeat. Politicians that represent are keen to make sure that whatever is going to happen is done in a manner so that people are protected. Because that's what their responsibility is.