The silent savior of the Gulf of Mexico

Scientists in the US have discovered a new strain of bacteria that eat oil rapidly growing in the Gulf of Mexico and helping to destroy oil particles.

Pelicans in the Gulf of Mexico on August 24.Photo: AP

AP reported that experts at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Center, the United States, found the strain of oil-absorbing bacteria while studying the extent of oil dispersal in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion of BP Group. What surprised them was that this strain of bacteria was never known.

'Our findings show that bacteria have great potential in helping people remove oil from seawater,' said Terry Hazen, research leader, in Sciencexpress .

A report released last week confirmed scientists saw tiny droplets of oil that formed something like a fog that was more than 35 km long under the sea.

'We see the expansion of oil stimulates the proliferation of a cold-loving bacterium under the sea. They are related to the strains of bacteria that eat oil that we already know, ' Hazen said.

Hazen's group collected more than 200 water samples at 17 deep water locations. They found that the bacterium that dominated the oil-water samples was a new and related species to the Oceanospirillales strain. They live in deep water near the sea floor, where the average temperature is about 5 ^o C.

New bacteria discovered (inside the red circle).Photo: AP

Scientists are concerned about the absorption of oil by bacteria strains that can take in more oxygen in seawater, making other organisms have no oxygen to breathe. But research by Hazen and colleagues shows that new bacteria do not take oxygen. Oxygen saturation in oil-free water reaches 67%, while oxygen saturation in water has oil of 59%.

Oil and gas group BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing dozens of workers. The oil well below the rig leaks causing tens of thousands of liters of oil to escape every day. The BP Group tried to seal the wells with leaks several times, but it was not until August 4 that they achieved the expected results.

Soon after, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Geological Administration declared that most of the oil in the bay had been recovered, burned, decomposed or evaporated. However, scientists from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida in the US claim 70-79% of oil in the Gulf of Mexico has not disappeared. They think that oil settles down to the water layers below, making the bay surface appear cleaner.