Myths About The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred on April 20, 2010. It resulted in millions of gallons of oil being released into the ocean. The oil spread and killed microorganisms and larger animals. It also killed eleven people. It reached coasts and damaged beaches and economies. It also raised a lot of questions, which resulted in many myths and misconceptions. The first common misconception is that once oil is spilled into the Gulf, it will stay there forever. In order to understand this myth you have to understand what oil is. Oil isn’t just one single chemical, but a mix of many similar chemicals. All the chemicals in oil don’t degrade at the same rate. Some of the chemicals are harmful to wildlife …show more content…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs for short, are the dangerous oil molecules in question. When we consume PAHs our body realizes that they are dangerous foreign objects and directs them to our liver to be broken down. Enzymes in our liver break down the PAHs into less dangerous substances that are absorbed into our urine and are expelled through normal body processes. Fish remove PAHs out of their systems in a very similar way within a few days to weeks of initial ingestion. On the other hand oysters, mussels, and other bivalves don’t have enzymes. So they release PAHs more slowly through their gills, but they still remove them from their body. This is why fisheries were closed for awhile following the oil spill. To allow time for the animals to get the PAHs out of their systems. Some people also believe that “all oil is poison”. To some extent this is true. However, the oil that was spilled during the Deepwater Horizon spill was a light crude oil. It contained small to medium sized molecules, which is why it could be dissolved and degraded in water. This light crude oil was far less toxic than most forms of crude oil due to these small molecules. So it wasn’t really
April 20, 2010, a tragic disaster struck the Gulf Coast. British Petroleum deepwater Horizon oil rig cracked from three places and raw oil leaking into the sea. .it was considered that over 60,000 barrels of oil a day are mixing with Gulf water and Oil spread over 70 miles to 130 miles into the sea and can be seen from space.
Scientists now know that the oil is 100 time’s more toxic then originally thought. Even a minuet amount can cause deformities in fish like an extra fin.
British Petroleum (“BP”) is the company that is being blamed for the incident. Employing 80,000 people, BP is an international oil company that puts different technology to use for finding oil and gas under the Earth’s surface. One of the oilrigs, Deepwater Horizon has drilled 35,000 ft. making it to be the deepest drilling of oil and gas (Walsh). Deepwater Horizon was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip. After the explosion, helicopters searched for 11 crewmembers that reported missing. 17 people were injured (BP Internal Investigation Team). A day later, the rig was found upside down (BP Oil Spill Timeline). The cost to clean up the damage is approximately $760 million (Walsh).
The BP oil spill began on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. On April 20, 2010, 126 workers on the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon were in the process of temporarily closing the exploratory Macondo oil well. That evening, an explosion abroad the drilling unit set off a chain of events that eventually led to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon. Eleven crewmembers lost their lives and others were seriously injured, as fire engulfed and ultimately destroyed the rig.
Large amount of fish were reported dead in the thick brown mess. Pelicans and other bird where seen completely covered black which made their lives extremely hard. A small amount of oil on the birds feathers could leave the animal flightless and made it hard to swim and hunt for food. Scientists have discovered that pelicans nesting in Minnesota have been affected indirectly. These birds migrate to the Gulf every winter and were feeding on fish the winter after the spill occurred. They later went back to Minnesota to breed. Scientists saw that the eggs the birds were laying contained a chemical compound from the petroleum and dispersants. This may lead to reproductive problems down the road. The oil also killed an expediential amount of microscopic organisms including fish larvae. With these large amounts of eggs killed at once, the spill may have created gaps in the food chain. And the oil spill, even years later, still has lingering effects on the wildlife. There are many reports of fish that were born with deformities, and others that talk about groups of shrimp born without eyes. The impact of the oil spill stretches over 1,000 miles across the
The 2010 BP oil spill ultimately affected both people and the environment, polluting and damaging large areas and vast populations of wildlife. The BP oil spill caused took a toll on marine life, human life, and the economy, including the fishing and tourism industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Many factors such as Petroleum toxicity, oxygen depletion, and much more can be viewed as the major sources of the disaster which led to the negative impact on wildlife. It is very clear that an oil spill is recognized to be a disaster for both for people and the environment, any tragedy of this scale would clearly bring forth regulations that will attempt to prohibit the same calamity from happening again.
The oil spill had serious consequences for the ecosystem, it was found that the octant of Gulf (the area of the oil spill from Deepwater Horizon) contained 8332 species of plants and animals. In the main taxonomy of animals at all depths of disaster , there are 1461 mollusks, 604 polychaetes,1,503 crustaceans, 1,270 fish, sea turtles, 218 species of birds and 29 species of marine mammals (Gulf of Mexico biodiversity Applications Deep Horizon oil spill MM Thomas C. Shirley , John W. Tunnell , Jr. , Fabio Moretzsohn and Jorge Brenner , Harte Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies , Texas A & M University - .. Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 78412 , USA). Three months after the oil spill it was observed that the water contained 40 times more (PAH ) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than its previous contents. PAHs are often associated with oil spills and include carcinogens and provide different threats to the health of humans and marine life. PAHs were concentrated mainly near the coast of Louisiana, but grew 2.3 times in areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. PAH can directly harm the marine life by consuming Susan Strange was a scholar of international relations, she lived from 9 June 1923 to 25 October 1998. She was singlehanded responsible for the creation of international political economy. Susan Strange, has provided many theories that have contributed to the international political economy. Her main goal in all theories is the relationship between public and private power in developed countries. Our main topic of discussion is, explosion and sinking of the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico 20 April 2010 that resulted in large amo...
Oil Spill at Gulf of Mexico: Deepwater Horizon witnessed the dangerous British petroleum oil spill explosion. It was April 20, 2010 on the calendar when approximate five million barrels of oil was discharged in Gulf of Mexico plus records showed 11 people dead due to such oil spillage. This spill over was regarded as the
One of the many effects from the oil spill is that animals that came in contact with the oil Had it all of them and either died or got very sick. A lot of fish had sucked it into their lungs and had died and were all over in piles or just floating along shore. Animals that flew had it all over their wings
Nelson, A.N. 1971. Effects of oil on marine plants and animals. London: Institute of Petroleum.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was the largest and most catastrophic scandal of the company to this day. Not only was it the largest scandal for BP, but it is also ranked the number two largest oil spill recorded in history. An astonishing 210 million gallons of oil spread 2,500 to 68,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico. It all started when BP contracted out to Transocean to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. BP chose a spot that was supposed to be rich in oil and was rushing on a deadline and budget that they needed to meet. It is due to BP’s lack of risk analysis, following procedures, and cutting corners that 11 people were killed and 17 more were injured.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had an extremely negative effect on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem. The oil spread across the gulf contaminating any living organism that came into direct or indirect contact with it. The oil cuts off the ability of oxygen from the air to move into the water which directly harms fish and other marine wildlife that require that oxygen. The dispersant that the BP is using to try and break up the oil moves the slick into the entire water column which contaminates the ocean floor which would most likely not have seen any damage if it wasn’t for the use of these dispersants. More than 400 species that live in the Gulf Islands and marshlands are at risk and as of November 2 s...
BP oil spill caused tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day to be dumped into the Gulf of Mexico (Schrope, 2010). The BP oil spill was one of the worst disasters that have taken place. It took BP three months to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf. The BP oil spill was a disaster that was being watched by many people in the world and everyone expected BP to provide detail information about the fix and a resolution to why the blowout happened. The community wanted to know what actions BP plan to put in place to make sure this problem do not happen again. The public wanted to know about the impact the spill was having on the organisms, fishes, and other animals living in the gulf (Schrope, 2010). The public expected briefings on the cleanup efforts that plan BP was putting into place when the oil reached the shores. BP did not utilize information technology to the extent that it was available because took too long to cap off the flow of the oil.
On a Monday afternoon, A couple of friends and I drove about forty-five minutes to El Dorado to see a movie. A movie in which we didn’t know anything about. None of us had even seen the trailer. I sent my friend a link to the movies that were showing at the cinema in El Dorado, and she had chosen Deepwater Horizon solely on the fact she liked the actors that had been cast for the movie. A few of these actors included Mark Wahlberg and Kate Hudson. Deepwater Horizon, as I came to find out on the car ride there, is about the most devastating oil spill in United States history. Since this event occurred only roughly six years ago, I recognized it after my friend called it the BP oil spill. Growing up in south Arkansas, I know many people that work on oil rigs so the spill was something that came close to home. The movie portrays the events leading up to the rig explosion and the aftermath concerning the people aboard the rig.
When the oil spilled into the ocean, it spread out on the water surface very rapidly to form a thin layer of oil which is known as oil slick. The split oil will cause several impacts to the beaches, habitat and wildlife. When the oil spills reaches the beach, it will cling to the sand and rocks together and eventually they clump together which will poison the beach. When the spilt oil washes the mangrove swamp or other wetlands, the fibrous plants will absorb the oil which can damage the plant