John Paul says, at first, he couldn't believe his own scientific
data showing toxic microscopic marine organisms in the Gulf of
Mexico. He repeated the field test. A colleague did his own
test. All the results came back the same: toxic. It was the
first time Paul and other University of South Florida scientists
had made such a finding since they started investigating the
environmental damage from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The preliminary results, the scientists believe, show that oil
that has settled on the floor is contaminating small sea
organisms. Paul is a marine microbiologist with the University
of South Florida. He and 13 other researchers were in the middle
of a 10-day research mission that began August 6 in the Gulf of
Mexico when they made the toxic discovery. The researchers
battled 12-foot waves and storms but returned to St. Petersburg,
Florida Monday night. We were there as the team pulled its
research materials into the lab and got the first report back of
their initial findings. The