Ivor van Heerden works for BP? -UPDATE-5:30 pm: I did call Polaris Applied Sciences, with whom Van Heerden is employed and who is under contract with BP. I was told they are free to speak to the Press. They will however get back to me on how Van Heerden came to make these statements to the nation from Grand Terre Island: "The damage from the oil coming ashore is overstated", "The oil has impacted only tens of miles" ~NPR, June 5th, 2010.
~~15 minutes after I called and spoke to Gary Mauseth one of Van Heerden's bosses at Polaris, I get a call from Coast Guard Unified Command Public Affairs, a 3rd Class Petty Officer named Jonathan Lowery who just came on the scene 2 days ago from his duty station in Alaska. I wondered why the caller ID said Juneau, AK, 907-321-4176. (Duty Phone)
He wanted to know what questions I had for Polaris Applied Sciences (so he could provide me with the answers)
Riiiight! Everyone knows Unified Command has "BP answers".
Their BP Logo used to be all over the website, but as I watched this site change layouts no less than 5 times it has devolved to this. Everyone knows not to call BP Coast Guard Unified Command if you need answers or any actionable information!
Stunned and incredulous, my first question was (after why the hell am I talking to Public Affairs?): is Polaris allowed to speak to the Press? Answer: I'll get back to you.
2nd question: How much oil to-date has impacted the Louisiana Coast? Answer: I'll get back to you.
3rd question: How did Van Heerden come to say "Tens of Miles impacted"? Answer: No Answer. (He'll have to get that data?)
4th question: if you can't tell me how many miles of coast have been impacted by the oil, then how can Van Heerden say that the impact has been "overstated"? Answer: No Answer.
5th question: Why is Public Affairs calling me with answers to questions I put to the source of these statements? Answer: they are part all of the Unified Command Structure which speaks through Joint Information Center, or UCSJIC. I'm not kidding!
In short, I tried to call the source of this Court Settlement-friendly information that Ivor van Heerden told the nation yesterday, that the "impact of this oil on Louisiana's coast has been overstated", and they sicked a 25 yr old punk flack-catcher PR Hack on me from Coast Guard Unified Command who just arrived on the job June 4th, doesn't know Shit from ShiNola and hasn't even been down to the coast yet. Fucking Hell!
I called the scientists. They sent me a PR Hack. Are we not men?
Oh, and now that it appears that Ivor van Heerden is into the Jury-Tainting Business with BP, I sincerely hope that our readership may include his own jury in his own case against LSU, which he has requested to be expedited before October.
Of course, given the copious funding LSU receives from BP and the Oil Industry writ large, we are beginning to wonder if this is how Van Heerden seeks to get his job back, to wit: covering for BP before Their Liability Trials.

Routine Gulf Monitoring - Here's Why We Need It ~SkyTruth
~Three days ago we blogged about a possible small, but persistent, leak from offshore oil platform #23051 in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon spill. We asked for confirmation from anyone who might happen to be in the vicinity. Ask, and ye shall receive.

BP Admiral Thad"The Impaler" Allen is still Da'Shill, his Brit boyfriend Tony Fey Hayward is still in charge. Flow estimates are still incongruous. It is Still Life With Peckerwood!

Oyster bed in Plaquemines and more parts of Barataria Bay closed by state

The Last Oyster Harvest~Gambit