On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 people. As a result of this explosion, the BP pipe had leaked oil and gas on the ocean floor approximately 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It wasn’t until almost 3 months later, when the Macondo wellhead, that is located 5,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, was able to be capped off. However, by this time an estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil had already leaked into the Gulf, noting this to be the worst oil spill to occur in the U.S. history. The oil spread throughout the water with some hovering on the surface forming oil slicks or in midwater. Some of the other bulk of oil ended up on the seafloor which damaged the sea corals. With that
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Whatever mixture that didn’t get broken down by bacteria would just get mixed in with the deep sea sediments deep in the coastal where the breakdown decreases.
Although dispersants help expose the oil to bacteria and waves that help break it down, it can also expose it to wildlife. A study conducted in 2012 revealed that the oil and dispersant combination to be 3-52 times more toxic to microscopic animals than the oil all by itself! This is because the dispersant makes the oil easily accessible for these microscopic animals to ingest it. There were even some evident effect on animals of the Gulf of Mexico. There were pelicans covered with oil, fish found in brown sludge, and oil smothered turtles washed up on beaches. Seabirds were not able to fly and retrieve food because of surface oil and dolphins were also having difficulty swimming through oil slicks and found stranded and ill. Sea turtles as well. This ordeal continues to increase since the spill, however, we still are unsure how much of their populations in the Gulf or even the endangered Atlantic blue-fin tuna larvae have been affected until many more
Whatever mixture that didn’t get broken down by bacteria would just get mixed in with the deep sea sediments deep in the coastal where the breakdown decreases.
Although dispersants help expose the oil to bacteria and waves that help break it down, it can also expose it to wildlife. A study conducted in 2012 revealed that the oil and dispersant combination to be 3-52 times more toxic to microscopic animals than the oil all by itself! This is because the dispersant makes the oil easily accessible for these microscopic animals to ingest it. There were even some evident effect on animals of the Gulf of Mexico. There were pelicans covered with oil, fish found in brown sludge, and oil smothered turtles washed up on beaches. Seabirds were not able to fly and retrieve food because of surface oil and dolphins were also having difficulty swimming through oil slicks and found stranded and ill. Sea turtles as well. This ordeal continues to increase since the spill, however, we still are unsure how much of their populations in the Gulf or even the endangered Atlantic blue-fin tuna larvae have been affected until many more