Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has reached the food chain
Energy — di Cecilia Bergamasco
The Deepwater Horizon accident continues to pollute. The toxic substances released by the oil spill have entered the food chain.
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has reached the food chain
The Deepwater Horizon accident continues to pollute. The toxic substances released by the oil spill have entered the food chain.
Oil spilled from the disastrous Deepwater Horizon accident involving BP, which occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, has entered the food chain of animals in the area. This was demonstrated by researchers from Louisiana State University and Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.
The largest oil spill in American history
The Deepwater Horizon accident was caused by a blowout at a well on the oil platform, which for 87 consecutive days poured 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and caused the deaths of 11 workers. It was the largest oil spill in United States history, and it took more than five years from 20 April 2010 for BP, the platform's owner, to be called to account — at least financially — for the damage caused to fish stocks, the ecosystem, the fishing economy and the health of all those living in the area affected by what was dubbed the "black tide". In 2015, the company was ordered to pay $18.7 billion in compensation to the US "Gulf states" hit by the environmental disaster, namely Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Animals and ecosystem severely threatened
A record settlement that nonetheless fails to repair the damage caused by the disaster. The immediate effects of the spill were plain to see. Birds coated in oil, dead fish and beaches covered in black sludge from the crude were the first, horrifying results. In the first months after the spill, nearly 7,000 dead animals were collected. Among them were more than 6,100 birds, 69 sea turtles, one hundred dolphins and other mammals. In 2016, a report by Oceana — an international organisation active in ocean conservation — concluded that in the six years following the disaster, between 600,000 and 800,000 birds died as a result of oil pollution. Not to mention that the disaster not only caused severe problems for local wildlife and plant life but also put serious pressure on fishing in the areas surrounding the spill.
Six years ago, the BP #DeepwaterHorizon oil rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico bit.ly/1SjxaZv
Toxic substances in the food chain
Today, the study by Louisiana State University and Austin Peay State University shows that despite the area appearing to respond and begin to recover, the pollution remains and is in fact more insidious because it is invisible. Through zooplankton — those tiny animals at the base of all marine food chains — highly polluting compounds have entered the food chain, first of fish and larger marine animals, and subsequently of birds.
"Fish can consume phytoplankton poisoned by oil, fish eat other fish and carry the absorption of toxins forward; marine mammals and birds eat fish and could potentially carry toxic substances to other predators," wrote Jenna Bardroff, wildlife biologist, on the One Green Planet website.
Oil spills continue
Since the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010, the number of oil spills reported in the Gulf of Mexico has reached 11,700. It is estimated that Gulf oil producers lose one gallon of oil for every 20,000 gallons produced. Given that 20 billion gallons of crude are extracted from the Gulf every year, the figure becomes staggering. Oil that we now know will re-enter circulation as a harmful substance in the food chain of the animals that live and reproduce in the areas affected by the spills. It is time for the governments that fund the oil industry and support oil extraction to engage in serious reflection — not only to limit drilling, but at the very least to make it safer.