Reporting from Los Angeles and Venice, La. — Biologist Dennis
Takahashi-Kelso peered into the cobalt waters of the Gulf of
Mexico 20 miles off the Louisiana coast. The only sign of
pollution was a plastic bag floating beneath the surface. More
than three weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded,
resulting in a leak spewing 210,000 gallons of crude per day
into the gulf, the fouled beaches and dead seabirds that are the
hallmarks of catastrophic spills have yet to materialize. But
Takahashi-Kelso, who was Alaska's commissioner of Environmental
Conservation at the time of the Exxon Valdez disaster, warned:
"It's going to be bad." Even as the spill breaks into separate
strands, a nasty environmental storm is brewing below the
surface, in deep columns of water teeming with life, from shrimp
and fish eggs to dolphins and whales. Last week, researchers
from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology
reported on their website that they had found what they believe
are large plumes of oil far ben