The dramatic effects of Oil Spills

1. The dramatic effects of Oil Spills Presented by: Ravina Shah AP Biology Human Impact Period 4/5

2. What is the Issue? • This issue is caused by the carelessness of people handling the oil tankers in the ocean. • There are many ways in which oil spills affect the water. Oil spill from leaking pipes can cause major wildlife and habitat destruction. • Each type of oil spill is different because the effects of the spill is dependent on the type of oil spilled, the location of the spill, the wildlife in the area of spill, the timing of breeding and migrating cycles, and the weather in the water during the spill. • When oil is released and spread through the bodies of waters, it tends to the bodies of the wildlife organisms with a think sticky layer. The oil that floats on the surface of sea water endangers the marine animals and the sea birds. Certain fish are attracted to the oil mistakenly because they think that it is food. Some of the common effects of oil in the environment and oil ingestion: • Poisoning of wildlife that are higher up in the food chain because they eat smaller organisms that have ingested the oil. • Interference in breeding because animals are too ill. • Damage in the airways and lungs of marine animals. This can lead to congestion, pneumonia, emphysema, and even death. • Skin irritation and ulceration of skin, mouth and nasal cavities. • Bacterial infections caused by damage in the animals’ immune system. There is damage of red blood cells. • Organ damage/ failure of animals’ liver. • Damage of fish eggs. • Poisoning of the young offspring through the mother absorption of oil in the mother’s milk.

3. Effects of organisms • The health associated problems of the wildlife organisms include hypothermia in birds by reducing and/or destroying the insulation and waterproofing properties of their feathers, hypothermia in fur seals that reduces the insulation through their fur coating, predation of birds because their oil coated feathers make it impossible for them to fly, and through the loss of body weight of birds as their metabolism tries to combat low body temperatures. • Most birds sink and drown into the because their feather cannot trap enough air between them to keep them buoyant.They become dehydrated and starve because they give up drinking, swimming, and diving to look for their food. • Dugongs are infected by the oil that sticks to their sensory hairs around their mouths. • The internal organs of animals and birds are damaged. For example, ulcers or bleeding in their stomachs if the oil is ingested into the body accidentally. • Sea otters are also harmed by the oil that sticks to their fur and builds up in the air bubbles; these air bubbles are located in their fur to help them survive cold conditions in water. • Killer whales are also affected by the oil spill because the whales intake oily water through their blowhole. If the blowhole is clogged with the sticky oil, then the whales will be unable to breathe. • The oil spill affects the majority of the food chain of the marine animals because primarily, the oil kills off planktons. As the plankton population goes down, the fish population goes down because there aren’t sufficient planktons to consume. And as the fish population decreases, the killer whale population/ other fish eater are affected because they don’t have enough fish to feed on.

4. How can this issue be fixed? • The cleanup and recovery of oil spill is extremely difficult because it depends on many factors. Methods of cleaning up include: • Bioremediation: the use for microorganisms to break down/ remove oil. • Bioremediation accelerator: oleophilic (hydrophobic chemical) that bonds to soluble/insoluble hydrocarbons that acts like a herding agent in water. • Dispersants acts as detergents by clustering around oil clotted globules and allows it to be carried away in the water. This improves the surface and mobilized the oil. • Dredging, Skimming, and solidifying the oil particles is another to fix this problem with the help of detergents. • A vacuum is used to suck up oil that comes along the water. The centrifuge can be used to separate the oil from the water in a tanker that collects the oil.

5. How can this issue be fixed? Prevention of oil spill is also a very important factor in saving the environment from the destruction. • The Seafood Sensory Training puts forth the effort to detect oil in seafood. Inspectors/ regulators are trained to sniff out seafood tainted by oil. • Secondary contamination includes methods that prevent the release of oil and hydrocarbons into the environment. • The Oil Spill Prevention Containment and Countermeasures (SPCC) is another program started by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. • Double-hulling has double hulls into vessels that reduces the risk and severity of a spill in case of a collision or groundling. • Sorbents are utilized to collect the oil because they cat as sponges that soak p the oil. Save animals that have been coated with the oil • The birds are sent to the cleaning center where the oil is flushed out of their eyes and their internal organs. Then they will be given a stomach-coating medicine that will prevent anymore oil from entering the birds’ stomach • On sea otters, the heavy oil coating will be washed away in warm water. Then they will also be given medical treatment and a nutritious meal.

6. Video on oil spill • The following link to the video will help you understand the human impact of the oil spill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uax5FRWnvs&feature=related