Story at a glance
- A decade after the oil spill, Gulf waters have not returned to normal conditions.
- The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) authored a report outlining 10 species still affected.
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A new report authored by a wildlife advocacy organization states that 10 years later, the United States’s worst oil spill is still having adverse effects on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, owned by BP, occurred in April 2010 when a rig exploded and sank, killing 11 workers in the process. Media coverage of the event was characterized by images of a flaming rig, streaks of glassy black oil swimming through Gulf waters, and animals native to the area drenched in or dead from exposure to the oil spill.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 4 million barrels of oil were leaked into the Gulf over an 87-day period.
The legal battle that ensued following the spill resulted in the largest environmental damage settlement in U.S. history, with $16 billion being made available for restoration projects on behalf of all parties charged, per the report.
Many private and public resources were poured into restoration efforts, and BP even donated $500 million to the formation of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, according to the Smithsonian Ocean Institute. Researchers at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), however, point out that the Gulf has yet to return to pre-spill conditions.
This result is “hardly surprising given the enormity of the disaster,” David Muth, the director of the Gulf of Mexico Restoration Program for the NWF, told AP. With more data available 10 years after the disaster, the report identifies how 10 species of animals were affected by the oil spill.
The 10 species studied in the report include Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, the coastal bottlenose dolphin, the laughing gull, deepwater coral, Bryde’s whale, the Eastern oyster, the common loon, the Gulf sturgeon, the spotted sea trout and the brown pelican.
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Some organisms, like the deepwater coral, have sustained severe damage and can only improve with further research into how to restore and recover existing populations.
Others can be revived primarily through restoring habitat conditions that were decimated as a result of the oil spill, like that of the brown pelican, and restricting human activity such as overfishing, boating and further drilling operations.
“Projects that restore wetlands, rebuild oyster reefs, protect important habitats from development, and recreate natural patterns of water flow and sediment deposition will help many species harmed by the oil. In addition to helping wildlife, many of these projects will help protect coastal communities from rising seas and extreme weather,” the report reads.
The concluding pages of the report list necessary steps needed to improve the health of the Gulf’s ecosystem, including legislative solutions like keeping the National Environmental Policy Act in place, restoring migratory bird protections, and transitioning to cleaner energy.
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