Oil Spills

It has been two years since the Deep-water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill commission has reported that still some of their recommendations have yet to be approved and implemented by congress. In the past two years, there have been many other oil spills, not all involving the oceans, but causing ecological distress just the same for what area they occurred.

A Nigerian pipeline ruptured in May, 2010 causing a million gallons to leak on to the surface of the ocean, coating wildlife and devastating the fishing industry. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline spill that same month during a scheduled shutdown, dumped thousands of oil, but most of it in gravel and causing no injuries. In June of 2010, Utah had a Chevron pipeline burst near Salt Lake City with 33,000 gallons of oil leaked into a tributary of the Great Salt Lake, but it did NOT reach the lake. 150 birds were rescued and rehabilitated. In October, 2010 the tanker Rena ran aground a reef by northern New Zealand and leaked so much oil that New Zealand has called it their “largest maritime environmental disaster.” 2,000 seabirds died, but they managed to rescue and rehabilitate back into the wild 343 little blue penguins.

The 1989 Valdez Exxon oil spill has been one of the most memorable and worst environmental disasters concerning fish and mammals. Over 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 endangered bald eagles and 22 killer whales lost their lives, plus untold billions of salmon and herring eggs.

In terms of time spent and gallons expelled, the three worst oil spills in history were Ixtoc 1 oil spill in Mexico in 1979 that lasted one year after a blowout, fire and collapse of an oil rig; the Atlantic Empress oils spill off Trinidad and Tobago caused by a tropical storm boating accident involving an oil tanker and a ship; and the worst in history EVER in January 1991 in the Arabian Gulf off of Kuwait. To make this even more horrendous, this disaster was done deliberately by the Iraqi when they opened valves to prevent American soldiers from landing. The damaging oil spread over a shocking 4,000 mile radius.

Ongoing studies are still determining two years after the Deep-Water Horizon spill, the effects on shrimp, marshes, toxicity levels and biology in general. The spill happened during both Herring and White Shrimp spawning cycles; but shrimp spawn yearly and Herring every four years, so shrimp should recover first.