The Gulf oil spill has killed local wildlife not only with oil but also in cleanup efforts. It may have changed the behavior of some animals, too. But its hard for scientists to draw a direct link.
Pensacola Beach, Florida – A sunbathing family spots a beached baby dolphin covered in oil from the Gulf oil spill. The family tries to scrape off the oil until a wildlife officer, jaw hard-set, carries it to shore. On its way to a sea mammal rescue center in Panama City, the dolphin dies.
To many Americans, this might be one of the more enduring images of the Gulf oil spill – dolphins washed ashore, sea turtles dead, pelicans coated in oil. Yet for scientists attempting to count the cost of the Gulf oil spill to local wildlife, the task is not nearly so obvious.
Many dead animals could be sinking before being discovered in the vast Gulf. Autopsies of those found are usually inconclusive, because toxins are quickly metabolized by animal tissue. And the Gulf has long had its own set of environmental problems.
Recent reports of massive fish kills in Florida and Louisiana, for example, could simply be part of normal events that come with the heat, algae growth, and cyclical events in the deep strata of the Gulf and that starve some Gulf waters of oxygen.
“There is a lot of evidence that over years with no oil spills there have been massive die-offs in the Gulf,” says Thomas Shirley, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. “But that’s not saying the well isn’t having any effect on what we’re seeing now.”
Sea Creatures’ Strange Behavior
Along the Gulf, observers have reported fish acting peculiarly as the oil spill moves closer to shore, with sharks and rays bunching against beaches. Usually plentiful, porpoises have been missing from the Intracoastal Waterway in the past few days as the oil spill has moved ashore along miles of beaches in Florida’s Escambia County near Perdido Key.
But the oil can also attract sea life, creating different problems, says Mr. Shirley.
In the deep sea, sail fish, turtles, and crabs congregate around mats of sargassum, a floating seaweed. Predators often search the trailers, or strand line, of the sargassum for food. From beneath the surface, patches of slick could look to pelagic fish and turtles like strand lines, drawing the creatures closer.
When oil-soaked, however, those sargassum are pulled within booming structures and set on fire.
Deepwater Horizon Unified Command reported on Thursday that 240,000 barrels of oil (10 million gallons) have been burned at sea in hundreds of “burn boxes” spread out over the spill’s surface.
Boat captain Mike Ellis described what he had seen at sea in a YouTube report. “They drag a boom between two shrimp boats and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out,” Mr. Ellis said.
Shirley confirmed those reports. “We know it’s happening, and it’s a bad thing, but I don’t know any other solution” to getting rid of the oil, he says.
The Importance of an Accurate Total
Indeed, simply leaving oil on the surface – even far out at sea – can harm other animals, like porpoises, who breathe in “this stuff … where they break for air,” says Shirley, adding that it is directly toxic.
The oil can have an indirect knock-on effect, too. Scientists reported this week that nearly 50 turtles had died after getting caught in shrimp nets and dragged on the bottom – most likely in the days before about one-third of federal Gulf waters were closed to fishing and fishermen were racing to make money.
Animal rescue teams have notched some significant successes. This week, agents released 62 cleaned-up pelicans and a northern gannet at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast – the largest such release to date.
The wildlife toll so far pales in comparison with that of the Exxon Valdez, where at least 35,000 sea birds died. In the Gulf oil spill, that number is only about 1,000 – primarily because the spill is 50 miles from shore and a mile deep.
But determining the number of animals killed and the cause of death is important. Federal laws makes BP liable for up to $50,000 per dead animal on the endangered species list, such as a Kemp’s Ridley turtle.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.