SANTA BARBARA CALIFORNIA : MORE OFF SHORE OIL DRILLING and ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS? The public comment period for the BLM draft plan ends March 6 2026

NOOZHAWK : FEDS COULD OPEN SANTA BARBARA

Excerpt: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)  announced a new study on Jan. 13 that could open 850,000 acres of land across the state to a new oil and gas leasing program. The program will allow drilling and fracking on previously protected land, including in Santa Barbara and surrounding counties.

If the plan is approved later this year, around 400,000 acres in  Santa Barbara County could be eligible for drilling, including up to 100,000 acres of land around Vandenberg Village.

Surrounding areas like Lake Cachuma, Nojoqui Falls County Park and waterways such as the Sisquoc River could also be affected, according to Los Padras Forest Watch , a group that works to protect land within the Los Padres National Forest.

.................   “Of course, one of our chief concerns is the threat of another catastrophic oil spill,” Hall said. “Which (could cause) immediate and long-lasting harm to wildlife, coastlines, fisheries, and could result in extensive economic damage.”

If the leases are approved, they would be the first ones issued since 1984, according to Hall.

The first oil platforms in the Pacific Ocean were installed between 1967 and 1989 in federal waters, 4 to 10 miles offshore.

“The first major disaster occurred in 1969,” Hall said. “The well blowout at Platform A in Santa Barbara sent an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, devastating wildlife, marine ecosystems and tourism.”

Another oil spill occurred in 2015 near Refugio State Beach, dumping crude oil into the shoreline and ocean. Hall said recent estimates put the cleanup cost at $800 million.

TO COMMENT GO TO THIS LINK:

https://www.regulations.gov/document/BOEM-2025-0483-0001

HOW RICH NATIONS DUMP TOXIC OLD SHIPS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

BUSINESS INSIDERS : HOW RICH NATIONS DUMP OLD CRUISE SHIPS and OIL TANKERS

There's a video at this website to watch.....

This tweaks my concerns about ocean pollution...  Siren

MARINE MAMMAL CARE CENTER : GIVE THE SICK SEA LIONS A HOLIDAY PRESENT

MARINE MAMMAL CARE ; San Pedro, California  the only year-round marine animal hospital in Los Angeles County, admitting an average 350 animal patients per year, and serving from Malibu to Seal Beach - 70 miles of coastline.  YOU CAN ALSO VISIT TO SEE THE ANIMALS...

"We actively seek out strategic partnerships to expand awareness for the work we do.  One example is our participation as one of the primary care facilities in the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, which consists o 36 other wildlife rehabilitation organizations working under the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Office of Spill Prevention and Response.  In the event of an oil spill, MMCC will stablize, wash and care for affected marine mammals."

This organization also works with ocean conservation organizations such as Atla sea, Oceana, the Sea Change Agency, Cabrillo Aquarium, and other mammal care centers.

DOLPHINS SWIMMING FRANTICALLY - ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA OIL SPILL

LA TIMES MAJOR OIL SPILL CLOSES ORANGE COUNTY BEACHES PHOTOS 

by two Photojournalists, Allen J. Schaben and Myung Chun, this article come out after the paper edition reported "A Surf Session In One Word : Surreal" which said dolphins were swimming frantically.

Here is the report by surfer Joe Mozingo : LA TIMES SURFING THE ORANGE COUNTY OIL SPILL

With all the wonders of technology, it amazes me that we still have to contend with the possibilities of ecological damaging oil spills.

BAHAMAS - MUCH DESTROYED but MUCH IS NOT : HURRICANE DORIAN

OFFICIAL SITE OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS

Did you know that the Bahama Islands - 700 of them - are in the ATLANTIC OCEAN and are NOT in the Caribbean ?

I must have read a hundred articles and watched as many videos, searching for NEW information, about the oil spill and the destruction that Hurricane Dorian caused, since the Bahamas claims to have the clearest water on the planet and it's clear that it will take millions - maybe billions of dollars to rebuild Abaco Island and some other parts of the Bahamas.  It's so frightening, the changes in weather, the increased frequency and intensity of storms. People are experiencing intense suffering and loss.

But once you realize how spread out these islands are, you realize that you really can still enjoy much of the Bahamas.  And so - weather permitting - I agree that vacationing in the Bahama Islands and stimulating their economy is something you can do to help the people of that nation of islands.

AMAZON RIVER - 600 MILE LONG CORAL REEF - 60 SPECIES OF SPONGES and MORE!

DAILY MAIL - MASSIVE CORAL REEF AT THE AMAZON!  link to full article!


EXCERPT:

Researchers say the find was not suspected because many of the world's great rivers produce major gaps in reef systems, where no corals grow. 

The Amazon plume, an area where freshwater from the river mixes with the salty Atlantic Ocean, affects a broad area of the tropical North Atlantic Ocean in terms of salinity, pH, light penetration and sedimentation, conditions that usually correlate to a major gap in Western Atlantic reefs. 

The researchers say the reef appears to be thriving below the freshwater 'plume', or outflow, of the Amazon. 

Compared to many other reefs, the scientists say in a paper in Science Advances on Friday, it is is relatively 'impoverished'.

Despite this, they found over 60 species of sponges, 73 species of fish, spiny lobsters, stars and much other reef life.

BP GULF OIL SPILL A KILLER - LINK TO DISCOVERY NEWS UPDATE

"McKinney said he believes that as a result, the oil spill may have increased the size of the so-called "dead zone" of oxygen-starved water off the coast of Louisiana and Texas. Much of the dead zone -- which is toxic to all marine life -- is caused by agricultural runoff from Midwest farms flowing out the Mississippi River."

4th of JULY HOLIDAY UNITED STATES

We are officially into SUMMER here and the 4th of July is our most patriotic holiday. We the people of the United States need to think about our ecology and how we can as individuals have impact on a problem that's been getting worse for years, and is now even more horrible because of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico... WATER as we know travels all around the world, making this spill a WORLD WIDE ISSUE!

Did You Know THERE ARE NATURAL HOLES IN THE SEA BED THAT OIL FLOWS OUT OF?

OIL DOES EMERGE from natural holes in the sea bottom and that oil does pollute the water all the time. ON SOME BEACHES you find SEA TAR which is another oily substance. The amounts are usually minimal and not so destructive as the spill we are learning about now which is in the Gulf of Mexico.

NEW YORK TIMES reports THE GULF OF MEXICO OIL DISASTER LARGER THAN THOUGHT

Link now to this New York Times article that explains that instead of 1000 barrels of oil escaping into the sea it's more like 5000.


Sea Turtles and other dead sea creatures are washing ashore.

TELL THE SCIENTISTS HOW TO STOP THE OIL LEAK IN THE GULF

This is the best we can do! The scientists don't know how to cap the disastrous oil spill that you have probably seen on TV or the Internet every night. THIS IS THE LINK TO SUBMIT YOUR ORIGINAL IDEAS. Don't be shy!

Your "crazy" idea may just work!

NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION on the OIL SPILL CLEAN UP

Here's the link to the National Wildlife Federation.... CAN YOU HELP CLEAN UP THE BEACHES and the wild life - the plants and animals that are being destroyed?

GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL KILLING MARINE LIFE

Dolphins and other sea life killed by oil in the Gulf of Mexico, after a undersea well sprung a leak, are washing ashore... that's according to the reading on line that I've been doing these last few days. It makes me very sad, because it seems like there is no way to easily stop millions and millions of gallons of oil from spewing...

I often wonder if all that oil is not the earth's lubricant... if we use it all up will it stop softening the blow of earthquakes or is that why there have also been so many very big earthquakes this year?