BP Oil Spill Effects

So most people remember the devastating BP oil spill in 2010. It is estimated that 170 million gallons of oil were leaked into to Gulf. In the first couple of years it was majorly talked about, but now 5 years later not so much. Even when it was talked about it was mostly talked about what would happen to the tourism in the effected areas. In the first 6 moths alone more than 8,000 marine wildlife species were found dead or injured. I’m sure it doesn’t stop there and I’m sure there are still really damaging effects due to the spill so I decided to do a little investigating to figure out exactly what those are.

In the immediate wake of the oil spill there were obviously major more visible signs like marine life being just covered in oil, which can cause some species like birds to not be able to maintain their body temperature. There was also a high chance that marine life could have ingested the toxic oil, which causes ulcers and internal bleeding. Deep-sea corrals miles away from the spill were also found dying or already dead from the spill.

Although the oil isn’t as visible anymore there is still evidence of it being significant on the Gulf floors and what’s been washed up onto shore will likely be there for years to come. So what does this mean for the marine life in these areas? Well, dolphins in particular are sicklier. In an investigation done in the Barataria Bay area off of the Louisiana coast nearly half of the dolphins they looked at were considered to be very sick, and 17% of them were not expected to survive. That’s a really high percentage to me! Everyone loves dolphins and to think that nearly half of them are considered very sick is really devastating. The Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network is also finding that sea turtles are getting stranded at 5 times their normal rate! 5 times!? That’s mind blowing! Between 1986 and 2009 a yearly average of nearly 100 sea turtles were found stranded in the area affected by the spill. Since the spill nearly 500 sea turtles have been stranded per year! Not to mention that most of them were the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. This is really even hard to imagine. This spill could be at least partially responsible for wiping out a species of sea turtle. Crazy to think about!! Speaking of possible extinction, the spill happened during a peek breeding season immediately significantly depleting or in some cases completely wiping out egg and larval from some animals. Without the generation of these animals dips in some populations and effects on the food web will definitely be seen in years to come. Who knows how that will effect species populations, we could seen the endangerment of a lot more species to come.

We may not fully see the full effects of what the oil spill has done to the Gulf area, but even what we’re seeing now is really devastating. In the case of the Exxon oil disaster in 1989 it wasn’t until 4 years after that the herring population took a hit and to this day it still hasn’t recovered from it. It will be really interesting to see how the environment recovers from the spill in the years to come. It will definitely be a test of how resilient the oceans really are as opposed to how resilient people think they are.

http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill/Effects-on-Wildlife.aspx