Linda Hooper Bui, an associate professor of entomology at Louisiana State University, experienced a different form of harassment from BP while working on a study about the impact of the oil disaster on spiders and insects.
"BP was desperately trying to control the science, and that was what I ran into," Bui told Al Jazeera. According to her, BP's chief science officer "tried to intimidate me," and the harassment included BP "bullying my people" who were working in the field with her on her study that revealed how "insects and spiders in the oiled areas were completely decimated."
While collecting data for the study, Bui and her colleagues regularly ran into problems with BP, she said.
"Local sheriffs working under the auspices of BP, as well as personnel with Wildlife and Fisheries, the US Coast Guard - all of these folks working under BP were preventing us from doing our job," Bui explained. "We were barred from going into areas to collect data where we had previous data."
Bui said personnel from the USCG, Fish and Wildlife, and even local sheriffs departments, always accompanied by BP staff, worked to prevent her from entering areas to collect data, confiscated her samples, and "if I'd refused to oblige they would have arrested me" -- despite her having state permits to carry out her work.
Bui has also been harassed online, by what she thinks was "a BP troll," but she remained primarily concerned about what BP was doing to block her science. Her frustration about this prompted her to write an opinion article for The New York Times, titled A Gulf Science Blackout.
That is when she received a call from BP.
"August 24, 2010, at 7:15am the morning my op-ed was published, I received a call from BP's chief science officer who tried to get me to be quiet," Bui said. "He said he'd solve my problem, and asked me how much money I needed."
Bui explained to him she was only interested in being allowed to conduct her studies, and was not interested in working with BP, "that I was publishing science and it involved the entire scientific community," and she never heard back from him.
She believes her method of dealing with the overall situation was a success. "When somebody starts to mess with me, I publicize it and say: 'Don't f**k with me,'" she concluded. "And if you do, I'm going to go very public with it, and that's what I did."
BP did not respond to Al Jazeera for comment regarding her specific allegation.
GAP's Shanna Devine told Al Jazeera she believes the onus is on BP to investigate the possibility that there is a connection between the harassment and Ogilvy and BP employees.
"But so far they've taken a very hands-off approach," she explained. "They've not taken responsibility and they are not willing to share information with us."
Follow Dahr Jamail on Twitter: @DahrJamail
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