"Gulf's Fish Beachings May Be Increasing Because of BP Oil Spill"

"BP Plc's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be exacerbating a natural phenomenon that causes fish, crabs, eels and shrimp to swarm the shoreline to escape oxygen-depleted sea waters.

Called "jubilees" by locals because of the opportunity to scoop up seafood in buckets, they typically appear during the summer along the Gulf Coast. This year, scientists say jubilees have occurred in open water for the first time, raising concern that low-oxygen areas are expanding because of the more than 4 million barrels of oil BP's Macondo well leaked into the Gulf.

Low oxygen in the water because of oil and methane from the BP spill contributed to a "jubilee-like effect" in late June off the coast of Fort Morgan, Alabama, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, Monty Graham, a senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, said in a telephone interview. Catfish, shrimp, crab and flounder piled up along an offshore sandbar, until the sharks moved in, Graham, 45, said."

Leslie Patton reports for Bloomberg August 23, 2010.

SEE ALSO:

"Gulf Oil Spill: Has It Caused a New Fish Kill?" (Los Angeles Times)