viewers saw that you did not have in our shot we took from south padre. what you saw there, that sort of figure in the wind and the rain in texas is in fact our friend jim cantore from the weather channel. that s how bad it is down there. but back to what we re looking at where jeff is. this is the second time in two days i ve heard this. this might help. the storm might help because it would help the oil evaporate if it breaks it up. does oil evaporate? and if it evaporates, is it a good thing? to answer your question, when the evaporating process happens, it s at what they call the source, at the place where the oil is bubbling up, it begins at 5,000 feet at the bottom of the ocean. it makes its way to the surface. very quickly chemicals like benzine burn off. this stuff doesn t evaporate. in fact, as it s exposed to the sea, to the heat, to the salt water, it becomes pretty knox shus stuff. it becomes what we call
obviously created the separations that you described and now just the sort of coating of the surface wall to wall oil, is this an instance where the attempt of the cure, what bp is supposedly doing to clean up what it has spilled into the gulf that the cure is as bad if not worse than the original disease itself? in my opinion, absolutely. this dispersant, we re putting so much of this stuff in at the source. what they re basically doing is hiding it from sight. we re not seeing it on the surface anymore. so it must not be as bad. but it s robbing the water column of the oxygen. and we re seeing these huge plumes of oil underwater. and what you re seeing in florida today, in my opinion, is where these plumz are coes are and boiling out into that shallow water. i flew the florida coast right after this video. and i had people actually in water that had oil in it. and you could see the sheen for
this is the place where little baby fish grow up and they come up there and go out there and become big fish. this whole ecosystem not only supports wildlife, but it sports the livelihood, cull turl lcull and for generations. there are over 400 different species in the line of fire this toxic crude. you know, i m sitting here and holding this stuff. and, you know, i feel like i should be in, like, central park with my dog. i keep reminding myself that this is the other version of that stuff. it is incredibly toxic. when it begins out there in the waters, it contains up to 100 different hydrocarbons from benzine to chromium and mercury, all this stuff is very, very toxic. not only at the surface of the water but throughout the entire water column. i think we are in store for a truly devastating impact on our natural resources. let me explain one thing the
crude. it s incredible to me to think that this oil originated 100 miles from here. but it s tenacious stuff and sticks to everything, to the sand, to the habitat, to the wildlife. to that point, jeff, is there any precedent for predictsing the environmental impact of a category 2 storm mixing with that volume of oil that s on the surface, on the gulf and in the water that s forced now behind you and when all that stuff is forced into fragile ecosystems like marshes and such? reporter: keith, this is clearly the most devastating, unprecedented environment catastrophe our country has ever experienced. i think people don t truly recognize the importance of these gulf waters. 70% of our seafood, specifically our shellfish and shrimp, they grow in these waters. these are the nurseries for life.