Shocking new photos from BP disaster unearthed by Greenpeace

Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones writes about a trove of new photographs documenting the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.

In the midst of the disaster, BP and its contractors did everything they could to keep people from seeing the scale of the disaster. But new photos released Monday offer some new insight to just how grim the Gulf became for sea life.The images were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request that Greenpeace filed back in August 2010, asking for any communication related to endangered and threatened Gulf species. Now, many months later, Greenpeace received a response from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that included more than 100 photos from the spill, including many of critically endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles dead and covered in oil.

More photos and more about what they reveal at Mother Jones.

• [swankgd]

  What’s the “shocking” part of these photos? Upsetting and tragic perhaps, but who exactly is “shocked” to learn that animals in the gulf got covered in oil?

  • [fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

    Honestly, the ‘shocking’(albeit not very) part is the degree to which the NOAA, and presumably others who are better at being quiet about it, ended up carrying water for BP and Transocean. 

    One has the greatest difficulty imaging a good reason for why it should even take an FOIA request to pry these out of a publicly funded agency’s grasp…

  • [Guest]

    The cost schedule, per NOAA –

    http://www.gc.noaa.gov/schedules/6-ESA/EnadangeredSpeciesAct.pdf

• [Ramone]

  Why do FOIA requests take YEARS to process? Does BP have some ability to appeal requests?

• [Guest]

   BP walks on water. Well, floats really. Unless you Corexit!

• [BBNinja]

  I don’t know if I’d call a massive, negligent oil spill causing some turtles to turn up dead and covered with oil shocking.  I think the word is “expected”.

• [octolover]

  oh, those poor babies.  :(  gonna hug my tortoise when i get home from work.

  need a unicorn chaser:

• [rickscarf]

  Going to hell for this, but that picture sure looks like a turtle slathered in a yummy steakhouse marinade

  • [bcsizemo]

    I prefer mine with a light sweet crude…

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Maybe BP’s new mascot will be Teriyaki Turtle.

• [Bob dobbs]

  I’m not saying there isn’t an ass load of oil in the gulf still, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out that Green Peace brought their own oil to get these photos.

  • [10xor01]

    And I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out that you’re shilling for the oil industry.

    • [Tynam]

      It’s not even a plausible shill.  Seriously?  In the middle of the biggest oil disaster ever, you think they couldn’t find real endangered wildlife to photo?  Bet they had trouble finding water with oil on it too.

• [Marlaina Read]

  Have been reading lately also that there was a third leaking well not shown to public which BP even tried to keep secret from government. The third one is worse than the one highly publicised as “capped”, as the capped one was actually abandoned and not the source of the spill.. A lot of this came out of the BP hearing in March, including that they are using a highly toxic dispersant to clean up the oil as is leaks even today, despite the EPA and BP having access to less toxic ones, evidently there is some trade agreement with that dispersal company.

• [Marlaina Read]

  There is a round-up here of the research of the Gulf Rescue Alliance and their submission to congress, unsure of the veracity of all the facts, but it makes for interesting reading http://www.nationofchange.org/conclusive-evidence-bp-misrepresented-gulf-oil-spill-sent-congress-1330360084

• [Thebes]

  It wasn’t just BP and their contractors who worked to cover up the extent of the distaster.
  It was also the Obama administration.
  Incidentally, Obama was BP’s #1 campaign recipient in the 2008 (s)election cycle.
  Guess they really know how to invest…

• [realityhater]

  BP will never see another dime of my money , I refuse to be a patron at their overpriced gas stations ( funny how they are the most expensive station here in FLA.  There are too many reports of fish and shrimp not developing properly, there are still crews of workers combing beaches picking up tar balls. This company singlehandedly destroyed the coastline and no punishment,hmmmmmmm!

   what is the tipping  point of campaign contribution to become immune to prosecution ?

  • [teapot]

    I too have avoided their wares since the BP disaster. I recommend everyone else does as well. These fuckers only understand $$$.