Oil Spills Effect Wildlife How do you clean up wildlife after an oil spill? Oil spills are dangerous because it has lasting effects on all life cycles. It is important to look at all species that are affected by an oil spill. Oil spills effect the carbon cycle directly. They also effect the food chains in the water and on land. Oil effects animals in four ways physical contact, eating, breathing, and absorption (Effects of Oil Spills on Wildlife, 2010). Depending on what type of oil it is also contributes to the seriousness of the spill. The weather also has a role in the clean-up of a spill. There are four peer related articles that show there are real cause for concern What the Spill will Kill? Was about the animals that are affected by the spill. A Tale of Two Spills: Novel Science and Policy Implications of an Emerging New Oil Spill Model. This articles talks about the areas within the ocean that are affected differently depending on the spill, as well as the different ways to clean up the spills. Oil, Seabirds, and Science this article talks about the effects on the population, reproduction, habitat and recovery after an oil spill in seabirds. There Will Be Birds: Images of Oil Disasters in the Twentieth Centuries. This article talks about the different types of oil spills. The last article is Achievement of 100% Removal of Oil from Feathers Employing Magnetic Particle Technology the article explains how to get all of the oil out of feathers. For many years, the main use of cleaning up wildlife has been using detergents and warm water (Dao, Ngeh, Bigger, & Orbell, 2006). The hypothesis of my experiment is: Warm soapy water will remove motor oil from a feather more effectively than just warm water. Materials and Methods In t... ... middle of paper ... ...t could work it would be much more labor intensive then being able to use soapy warm water. Conclusion The effects of the oil spill have a population size, reproduction, and habitat. The oil spills can take a long time to clean up and that effects what the birds have to eat and where they can go without being disturbed by humans. Some of the places were breeding grounds for birds and then having to find other places to breed while the clean-up could lead to lower levels of reproduction. Throughout the years the changes on how we handle oil spills have changed. “Oil out of control increasingly meant oil at sea” as said in There Will be Birds (Morse, 2012). The penalties for the fragile balance of life in the defenseless ecosystems of the gulf, and the broader cycles of nature that maintain life in the gulf, are as limitless as they are devastating (Begley, 2010).
“ Effects of Oil Spills on Marine and Coastal Wildlife” Holly K. Ober. WEB. 19 May 2014
In 2010, there was a huge oil spill near the Gulf of Mexico that we now know as the BP Oil Spill today. The Spill sent about 170 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill killed 11 men aboard the deep-water Horizon. The BP Oil Spill impacted the environment very negatively. There were different types of environmental impact as a result of the Oil Spill, but the two that grabbed my attention the most are the Polluted Air and the Contaminated Food Chain. The first impact that grabbed my attention was the Polluted Air. Because of the Oil Spill, the air around the surroundings neighborhoods was polluted. All the lightest chemicals in the oil that had spill evaporated within hours of the incidence forming air pollution particles. These particles that are in the air poses significant threats to the human health from being inhaled. The chemical found in the particles that was formed is known as Volatile, which has been known to cause respiratory irritation and central nervous system depression (Solomon & Janssen, 2010). The second impact that grabbed my attention was the contamination of the food chain, specifically the food chain of sea animals that lives near the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists found traces of oil in zooplanktons; this could only mean that the sea creature has had contact with the spilled oil. According to the Staff at Houston Business Journal (2012), “Baby fish and shrimp feed on the tiny, drifting zooplankton, and then introduce contamination and pollution to the larger sea creatures in the food web.” With these findings, it isn’t going to take long before the baby fishes become grown and caught by fishermen and before we know it, it’s on our dinner plate. And here we are eating fishes w...
This oil as it moved through the water killed 300,000 sea birds, 2,600 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, and perhaps millions and millions of fish. Of the 23 studied species hurt by the spill only 2 are said to be completely recovered. The 2 are the Bald Eagle and the River Otter. Some show no recovery at all. Of these that haven’t recovered at all are the Harbor Seal, Harlequin Ducks, Pacific Herring, Cormorants, and even certain whales. If people were familiar with some of the clean up that went on, they would probably remember that cleaning of all those ducks. Well I hate to tell you but it was useless. Some of them died 5 days after they were released.
Besides the accidental spillage affecting severe damage to the environment and then causing harm to humans, there are direct impacts on human health from oil. Problems suc...
Large amount of fish were reported dead in the thick brown mess. Pelicans and other bird where seen completely covered black which made their lives extremely hard. A small amount of oil on the birds feathers could leave the animal flightless and made it hard to swim and hunt for food. Scientists have discovered that pelicans nesting in Minnesota have been affected indirectly. These birds migrate to the Gulf every winter and were feeding on fish the winter after the spill occurred. They later went back to Minnesota to breed. Scientists saw that the eggs the birds were laying contained a chemical compound from the petroleum and dispersants. This may lead to reproductive problems down the road. The oil also killed an expediential amount of microscopic organisms including fish larvae. With these large amounts of eggs killed at once, the spill may have created gaps in the food chain. And the oil spill, even years later, still has lingering effects on the wildlife. There are many reports of fish that were born with deformities, and others that talk about groups of shrimp born without eyes. The impact of the oil spill stretches over 1,000 miles across the
The 2010 BP oil spill ultimately affected both people and the environment, polluting and damaging large areas and vast populations of wildlife. The BP oil spill caused took a toll on marine life, human life, and the economy, including the fishing and tourism industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Many factors such as Petroleum toxicity, oxygen depletion, and much more can be viewed as the major sources of the disaster which led to the negative impact on wildlife. It is very clear that an oil spill is recognized to be a disaster for both for people and the environment, any tragedy of this scale would clearly bring forth regulations that will attempt to prohibit the same calamity from happening again.
The oil spill had serious consequences for the ecosystem, it was found that the octant of Gulf (the area of the oil spill from Deepwater Horizon) contained 8332 species of plants and animals. In the main taxonomy of animals at all depths of disaster , there are 1461 mollusks, 604 polychaetes,1,503 crustaceans, 1,270 fish, sea turtles, 218 species of birds and 29 species of marine mammals (Gulf of Mexico biodiversity Applications Deep Horizon oil spill MM Thomas C. Shirley , John W. Tunnell , Jr. , Fabio Moretzsohn and Jorge Brenner , Harte Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies , Texas A & M University - .. Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 78412 , USA). Three months after the oil spill it was observed that the water contained 40 times more (PAH ) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than its previous contents. PAHs are often associated with oil spills and include carcinogens and provide different threats to the health of humans and marine life. PAHs were concentrated mainly near the coast of Louisiana, but grew 2.3 times in areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. PAH can directly harm the marine life by consuming Susan Strange was a scholar of international relations, she lived from 9 June 1923 to 25 October 1998. She was singlehanded responsible for the creation of international political economy. Susan Strange, has provided many theories that have contributed to the international political economy. Her main goal in all theories is the relationship between public and private power in developed countries. Our main topic of discussion is, explosion and sinking of the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico 20 April 2010 that resulted in large amo...
One of the many effects from the oil spill is that animals that came in contact with the oil Had it all of them and either died or got very sick. A lot of fish had sucked it into their lungs and had died and were all over in piles or just floating along shore. Animals that flew had it all over their wings
Oil spills, no matter large or small, have long been of concern to pollution control authorities in this country. Due to its destructive nature, once an area has been contaminated by oil, the whole character of the environment is changed. When it has encountered something solid to cling to, whether it be a beach, a rock, the feathers of a duck or gull, or a bather’s hair, it does not readily let go (Stanley, 1969). By its nature o...
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had an extremely negative effect on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem. The oil spread across the gulf contaminating any living organism that came into direct or indirect contact with it. The oil cuts off the ability of oxygen from the air to move into the water which directly harms fish and other marine wildlife that require that oxygen. The dispersant that the BP is using to try and break up the oil moves the slick into the entire water column which contaminates the ocean floor which would most likely not have seen any damage if it wasn’t for the use of these dispersants. More than 400 species that live in the Gulf Islands and marshlands are at risk and as of November 2 s...
Throughout history there have been many environmental catastrophes that resulted in devastating destruction. The most recent one that took place five years ago, in the Gulf of Mexico, was the BP Oil Spill. This event caused eleven workers to be killed and over 8,000 birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals to be discovered injured or dead within six months after the spill occurred. Damage to the Gulf Coast is still taking place to this day. The aftermath effects sadly include certain species to become sparse of even extinct. Habitat rehabilitation and future reconstruction are positive steps in the right direction, but each action that has taken place will continually start a chain reaction; and whether they are positive or negative, only the
Bird experts Michael Weston and Voiter all come to the same consensus that oil spills do negatively affect seabirds, even if it is not in a extremely severe way. Both authors can attest to the fact that oil spills affect the seabirds food
More than 20 percent of the oil that was spilled may have possibly ended up in and on top of the seafloor, this has damaged deep-sea corals and also it has damaged a few other ecosystems. Due to the
When large oil companies drill for new oil on land, this create numerous amounts of problems for animals living in that area. These oil companies cut down thousands of trees, destroying animal's habitats and forcing them to leave. Because the land is getting destroyed, these animals have no safe place to live and no food to eat. If they try to adapt in a new in environment this could destroy the delicately balanced structure of the ecosystem (http://wilderness.org/seven-ways-oil-and-gas-drilling-bad-news-environment). Also, much noise is created by trucks, heavy machinery, and the workers. This causes noise pollution and disrupts migration routes for many birds and mammals. Toxic chemicals can also be released in to the Earth's atmosphere causing acid rain. Many fish in streams, lakes, and ponds can die from the surface runoff of these toxic chemicals(http://wilderness.org/seven-ways-oil-and-gas-drilling-bad-news-environment). Clearly, animals and their habitats suffer daily from these large oil
When the oil spilled into the ocean, it spread out on the water surface very rapidly to form a thin layer of oil which is known as oil slick. The split oil will cause several impacts to the beaches, habitat and wildlife. When the oil spills reaches the beach, it will cling to the sand and rocks together and eventually they clump together which will poison the beach. When the spilt oil washes the mangrove swamp or other wetlands, the fibrous plants will absorb the oil which can damage the plant