Essay On Offshore Drilling Spill

Words: 531
Pages: 3

As gas prices continue to hover around 4 dollars a gallon were hearing a cry for relief at the pump. Many people see offshore drilling as the answer and public support for offshore drilling has risen 18 over the last three years. Most people forget at what cost this oil has come with. On April 20, 2010 the offshore oil drilling rig Deep water Horizon exploded. It killed 11 workers and released 5 million barrels, or 200 million gallons, of oil into the Gulf of Mexico making it the worst environmental disaster in US history, It took 88 days to stop the leak and 30000 people to clean up the spill, but even then only a quarter of the oil recover. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas were all affected. Oil continues to be wash up on shores to this day and we are still trying to …show more content…
The damage to the ecosystem begins all the way at the sea floor. Corral reefs, which are a vital part of the oceans ecosystem, became coated with oil and died, Researchers found that 86 percent or coral reefs near the spill and it’s estimated that 10 times that many were actually Harmed. 6000 of the recovered animals were birds. When the oil gets their feathers, they lose the ability to shed water and makes it almost impossible for them to fly. It’s hard for scientist to determine how many fish were killed, but the number is in could be in the millions. Other mammals that were affected include bottlenose and spinner dolphins, sperm whales melon headed whales and 4 different species of endangered turtles. Recue efforts were able to save some of these, but the impact of the spill goes beyond just the environmental aspects. The US relies on the Gulf of Mexico for a third of all its seafood. After the spill, fisherman stared finding fish with sores and lesion, shrimp with eyes, and clawless crabs, it was discovered that these mutations were the result of the toxic oil and the dispersants afterwards. A third of the Gulf was closed to fishing in order to ensure that safety of