filter feeding organisms from the gulf of mexico

A series examining planktonic microfauna living near the site of the Macondo BP well blowout in 2010. Because they are filters they digest anything in their habitat, including petroleum and dispersant, and are then consumed by larger fish ( as well as humans) moving the toxic chemicals up the food chain, bioaccumulating it deeper into all the bodies and sediments throughout the water column. The series includes among others, Crab Zoa, Shrimp Larvae, Mussels, and Jellyfish. Much plankton is a life stage—it does not swim, but at this tender period of life is mobilized by drifting currents, until it either settles, like a mussel, or develops the means of locomotion, like a shrimp. Plankton and sediments of the area will harbor the evidence of oil and COREXIT dispersant the longest of any of the ocean’s systems, as they create microhabitat to store toxic molecules.