The 2010 Deepwater Horizon had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast economy as well as on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. In the years since the spill, researchers have studied the plants and animals in the Gulf of Mexico closely to assess the full impact of the massive oil spill. The oil spill released over a hundred million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is traditionally measured in barrels, but when you translate barrels into gallons, it is much easier for everyone to understand just how much oil that is. The oil covered over forty thousand square miles of the water’s surface and contaminated over one thousand three hundred miles of shoreline.
Thousands of sea turtles and marine mammals died from the oil spill and those animals that did not die faced the challenge of living in a polluted habitat that extended from the surface down to the ocean floor. Some individuals have been able to survive, but the impact on the populations of many species is devastating. Researchers who study marine life estimate that populations of some species could remain below pre-spill numbers for decades, even as habitat restoration projects get completed.
Thousands of the species of marine life that live in the Gulf of Mexico were protected species before the oil spill, meaning that their numbers were already of concern. The spill put those species at even greater risk for extinction. The animals that researchers have studied during their efforts to understand how the spill affected wildlife experienced a variety of means of exposure to the oil and the substance that were used to clean up the oil including ingestion, topical exposure, inhalation, and consumption of oil that was on the foods that they ate. These exposures caused many negative health effects like organ failure, respiratory failure, and reproductive failure.
Some of the more highly visible species have given researchers insight into how the spill is affecting them. For example, the population of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana appears to have been reduced by half. The population of bottlenose dolphins in the Mississippi Sound decreased even more dramatically, with a current population that is sixty-two percent smaller than it was before the oil spill. Populations of endangered sea turtles like the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle have experienced similar declines.
Research findings like these findings factored into the almost nine billion dollar allocation for natural resource damage that got included in the twenty billion dollar BP Oil Spill settlement that got approved by a U.S. federal judge last year. The funds that are designated for addressing natural resource damage are beginning to get used for a variety of habitat restoration projects in the Gulf Coast area.
Barrett Law PLLC: Supporting Those Damaged by the BP Oil Spill
The BP oil spill caused enormous amounts of environmental damage and widespread economic damage throughout the Gulf Coast region. The twenty billion dollar BP Oil Spill settlement is beginning to be put to use in environmental and economic restoration projects throughout the region. If you have questions about the BP oil spill litigation, call the Mississippi BP Oil Spill Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577, to arrange an initial consultation.
