tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/oil-spills-85010/articlesOil spills – The Conversation2024-01-03T16:00:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193672024-01-03T16:00:11Z2024-01-03T16:00:11ZWe used AI and satellite imagery to map ocean activities that take place out of sight, including fishing, shipping and energy development<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566911/original/file-20231220-19-b20mqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4839%2C3265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many commercial fishing boats do not report their positions at sea or are not required to do so.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/aerial-view-of-small-fishing-boat-in-open-ocean-royalty-free-image/1285320085">Alex Walker via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans are racing to harness the ocean’s vast potential to power global economic growth. Worldwide, ocean-based industries such as fishing, shipping and energy production generate at least <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264251724-en">US$1.5 trillion</a> in economic activity each year and support <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264251724-en">31 million jobs</a>. This value has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.016">increasing exponentially</a> over the past 50 years and is expected to double by 2030. </p>
<p>Transparency in monitoring this “blue acceleration” is crucial to prevent <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553458">environmental degradation</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4060/cc0461en">overexploitation</a> of fisheries and marine resources, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/16/the-crimes-behind-the-seafood-you-eat">lawless behavior</a> such as illegal fishing and human trafficking. Open information also will make countries better able to manage vital ocean resources effectively. But the sheer size of the ocean has made tracking industrial activities at a broad scale impractical – until now.</p>
<p>A newly published study in the journal Nature combines satellite images, vessel GPS data and artificial intelligence to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06825-8">reveal human industrial activities across the ocean</a> over a five-year period. Researchers at <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/">Global Fishing Watch</a>, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea, led this study, in collaboration with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ArWZ7X0AAAAJ&hl=en">me</a> and our colleagues at Duke University, University of California, Santa Barbara and <a href="https://skytruth.org/">SkyTruth</a>.</p>
<p>We found that a remarkable amount of activity occurs outside of public monitoring systems. Our new map and data provide the most comprehensive public picture available of industrial uses of the ocean.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A world map shows large areas where industrial fishing activity is not publicly tracked or recorded." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566373/original/file-20231218-27-k4cjbr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data analysis reveals that about 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, with much of that fishing taking place around Africa and South Asia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Operating in the dark</h2>
<p>Our research builds on existing technology to provide a much more complete picture than has been available until now. </p>
<p>For example, many vessels carry a device called an automatic identification system, or AIS, that automatically broadcasts the vessel’s identity, position, course and speed. These devices <a href="https://shipping.nato.int/nsc/operations/news/2021/ais-automatic-identification-system-overview">communicate with other AIS devices nearby</a> to improve situational awareness and reduce the chances of vessel collisions at sea. They also transmit to shore-based transponders and satellites, which can be used to <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-map/">monitor vessel traffic and fishing activity</a>.</p>
<p>However, AIS systems have blind spots. Not all vessels are required to use them, certain regions have poor AIS reception, and vessels engaged in illegal activities may <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-fishing-boats-go-dark-at-sea-theyre-often-committing-crimes-we-mapped-where-it-happens-196694">disable AIS devices</a> or <a href="https://youtu.be/Azm4yKKIlqE?si=vvng8to_Hsa13E1p">tamper with location broadcasts</a>. To avoid these problems, some governments require fishing vessels to use proprietary vessel monitoring systems, but the associated vessel location data is usually confidential.</p>
<p>Some offshore structures, such as oil platforms and wind turbines, <a href="https://www.amsa.gov.au/safety-navigation/navigation-systems/automatic-identification-systems-offshore-structures">also use AIS</a> to guide service vessels, monitor nearby vessel traffic and improve navigational safety. However, location data for offshore structures are often incomplete, outdated or kept confidential for bureaucratic or commercial reasons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fishermen wade into the ocean, pulling large nets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566375/original/file-20231218-23-bd69hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fishermen haul their nets by hand from the beach in Muanda, Democratic Republic of Congo. Unregulated fishing by foreign trawlers and other factors have depleted fishing stocks and impoverished local fishermen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fishermen-haul-their-nets-by-hand-from-the-beach-in-muanda-news-photo/1237283044">Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Shining a light on activity at sea</h2>
<p>We filled these gaps by using artificial intelligence models to identify fishing vessels, nonfishing vessels and fixed infrastructure in 2 million gigabytes of satellite-based <a href="https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1">radar images</a> and <a href="https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-2">optical images</a> taken across the ocean between 2017 and 2021. We also matched these results to 53 billion AIS vessel position reports to determine which vessels were publicly trackable at the time of the image.</p>
<p>Remarkably, we found that about 75% of the fishing vessels we detected were missing from public AIS monitoring systems, with much of that activity taking place around Africa and South Asia. These previously invisible vessels radically changed our knowledge about the scale, scope and location of fishing activity.</p>
<p>For example, public AIS data wrongly suggests that Asia and Europe have comparable amounts of fishing within their borders. Our mapping reveals that Asia dominates: For every 10 fishing vessels we found on the water, seven were in Asia while only one was in Europe. Similarly, AIS data shows about 10 times more fishing on the European side of the Mediterranean compared with the African side – but our map shows that fishing activity is roughly equal across the two areas.</p>
<p>For other vessels, which are mostly transport- and energy-related, about 25% were missing from public AIS monitoring systems. Many missing vessels were in locations with poor AIS reception, so it is possible that they broadcast their locations but satellites did not pick up the transmission.</p>
<p>We also identified about 28,000 offshore structures – mostly oil platforms and wind turbines, but also piers, bridges, power lines, aquaculture farms and other human-made structures. Offshore oil infrastructure grew modestly over the five-year period, while the number of wind turbines more than doubled globally, with development mostly confined to northern Europe and China. We estimate that the number of wind turbines in the ocean likely surpassed the number of oil structures by the end of 2020.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="World map with locations of wind turbines, oil and gas platforms and other structures highlighted along coastlines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566913/original/file-20231220-23-fa89lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers combined machine learning and satellite imagery to create the first global map of offshore infrastructure, spotlighting previously unmapped industrial use of the ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Supporting real-world efforts</h2>
<p>This data is freely available through the Global Fishing Watch <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/datasets-and-code/">data portal</a> and will be maintained, updated and expanded over time there. We anticipate several areas where the information will be most useful for on-the-ground monitoring:</p>
<p>– <strong>Fishing in data-poor regions</strong>: Shipboard monitoring systems are too expensive to deploy widely in many places. Fishery managers in developing countries can use our data to monitor pressure on local stocks. </p>
<p>– <strong>Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing</strong>: Industrial fishing vessels sometimes operate in places where they should not be, such as <a href="https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-african-coastline-is-a-battleground-for-foreign-fleets-and-artisanal-fishers/">small-scale and traditional fishing grounds</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fishing-illegal-oceana-going-dark-marine-protected-areas-2018-4">marine protected areas</a>. Our data can help enforcement agencies identify illegal activities and target patrol efforts.</p>
<p>– <strong>Sanction-busting trade</strong>: Our data can shed light on maritime activities that may breach international economic sanctions. For example, <a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1718/resolutions">United Nations sanctions</a> prohibit North Korea from exporting seafood products or selling its fishing rights to other countries. Previous work <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb1197">found more than 900 undisclosed fishing vessels</a> of Chinese origin in the eastern waters of North Korea, in violation of U.N. sanctions. </p>
<p>We found that the western waters of North Korea had far more undisclosed fishing, likely also of foreign origin. This previously unmapped activity peaked each year in May, when China bans fishing in its own waters, and abruptly fell in 2020 when North Korea closed its borders because of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZRLW-3Niseg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Better monitoring may help nations coordinate offshore activities in busy regions like the North Sea.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>– <strong>Climate change mitigation and adaptation</strong>: Our data can help quantify the scale of greenhouse gas emissions from vessel traffic and offshore energy development. This information is important for enforcing climate change mitigation programs, such as the European Union’s <a href="https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/transport/reducing-emissions-shipping-sector_en">emissions trading scheme</a>. </p>
<p>– <strong>Offshore energy impacts</strong>: Our map shows not only where offshore energy development is happening but also how vessel traffic interacts with wind turbines and oil and gas platforms. This information can shed light on the environmental footprint of building, maintaining and using these structures. It can also help to <a href="https://skytruth.org/cerulean/">pinpoint sources of oil spills</a> and other marine pollution. </p>
<p>Healthy oceans <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/why-care-about-ocean.html">underpin human well-being</a> in a myriad of ways. We expect that this research will support evidence-based decision-making and help to make ocean management more fair, effective and sustainable.</p>
<p><em>Fernando Paolo, senior machine learning engineer at Global Fishing Watch; David Kroodsma, director of research and innovation at Global Fishing Watch; and Patrick Halpin, Professor of Marine Geospatial Ecology at Duke University, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The study described in this article was funded by Oceankind, Bloomberg Philanthropies and National Geographic Pristine Seas. The European Space Agency made radar and optical imagery freely available, and Google provided computing resources and technical support. Jennifer Raynor has worked at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Global Fishing Watch.</span></em></p>A new study reveals that 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are hidden from public view.Jennifer Raynor, Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Economics, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098072023-07-31T11:44:09Z2023-07-31T11:44:09ZI’ve spent 50 years studying one seabird colony fight its way back from near extinction – now it faces new threats<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539505/original/file-20230726-27-rfmrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C0%2C3500%2C2321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A guillemot nesting on a cliff ledge on Skomer Island, south Wales.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/guillemot-nesting-on-cliff-ledge-skomer-454070743">Andrew Astbury/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few decades, Skomer Island off the south coast of Wales has witnessed a remarkable resurgence in its guillemot population. Before 1930, Skomer was home to over 100,000 <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/guillemot/">common guillemots</a>. But by the end of the second world war, this number had <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320460192_Changes_in_the_numbers_of_common_guillemots_on_skomer_since_the_1930s">plummeted by about 95%</a> and continued to decline for the next few decades. </p>
<p>This population decline was probably caused by chronic oil pollution during the second world war and several major oil tanker incidents in the subsequent years. In 1967, for example, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39223308">spilled over 100,000 tonnes of crude oil</a> into the English channel.</p>
<p>However, counts conducted by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales show that Skomer’s guillemot population has consistently grown at an <a href="https://britishbirds.co.uk/content/june-2023">annual rate of about 5%</a> since the 1980s. In 1972, there were around 2,000 guillemots breeding on Skomer. Fast forward to 2023 and that number has skyrocketed to around 30,000. </p>
<p>This resurgence has been the subject of a long-term study conducted by myself and my colleagues over past 50 years. The increase in Skomer’s guillemot population is remarkable considering that populations in northern regions of the country have declined over the same period. </p>
<p>But our study also reveals that seabirds, including Skomer’s guillemots, now face several pressing threats – with climate change emerging as one of the most significant challenges.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tim Birkhead sat on top of a cliff peering through binoculars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539550/original/file-20230726-15479-ui884.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tim Birkhead (pictured) has studied guillemots (Uria aalge) on Skomer Island for 50 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">K. Nigge</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Guillemots on the rise</h2>
<p>We have been monitoring the survival and breeding success of guillemots on Skomer. Our aim was to establish whether chick production, breeding age and adult and chick survival rates could explain the observed increase in their numbers. It took 30 years until we had a sufficient sample size to address these questions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260104714_The_population_increase_of_common_guillemots_Uria_aalge_on_Skomer_Island_is_explained_by_intrinsic_demographic_properties">Our results</a> showed that the population increase since 1980 is entirely due to the productivity and survival of the Skomer birds themselves. In fact, there’s relatively little immigration or emigration affecting the colony’s numbers. </p>
<p>There has, however, been a <a href="http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/journals/seabird-34/seabird-34-1.pdf">marked reduction in oil pollution</a> in waters surrounding the UK in recent years. In the 1970s, around 90% of the dead guillemots found on beaches surrounding the North Sea were contaminated with oil. By 2020, this proportion had fallen to 10%. </p>
<p>This decline in oil pollution may be what has allowed the guillemot population on Skomer and other southern regions of the UK to bounce back towards the levels seen before 1930.</p>
<h2>Breeding earlier</h2>
<p>However, seabirds, including Skomer’s guillemots, continue to face a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129342">multitude of threats</a>. Oil pollution has declined, but it has been superseded by the even more insidious and <a href="https://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/publipdf/2021/SS372_2021.pdf">far-reaching effects of climate change</a>. Together with <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13442">persistent overfishing</a> and the recent <a href="http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/journals/seabird-34/seabird-34-C.pdf">emergence of avian flu</a>, climate change has further contributed to the increasing fragility of seabird populations.</p>
<p>One of our most striking results is that the timing of guillemot breeding has advanced by more than two weeks on average since the 1970s. The cause of this advance, which has also been noted in many bird species on land, is <a href="https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/publications/bto_climate_change_and_uk_birds_-_james_pearce-higgins_bto_web-compressed.pdf">probably climate change</a>.</p>
<p>We believe the early breeding season might be linked to the seasonal availability of their fish prey. There is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.2244">increasing evidence</a> that warmer seas are having a marked effect on both the distribution and abundance of marine fish in the UK.</p>
<h2>Dealing with extreme weather</h2>
<p>Climate change is also causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms. Sustained bad winter weather makes it difficult for guillemots and <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/">puffins</a> (another member of the bird family known as auks) to find food. This can lead to devastating “wrecks” where large numbers of dead seabirds wash up on the shore.</p>
<p>In early 2014, a series of storms resulted in the <a href="http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/journals/seabird-29/seabird-29-22.pdf">deaths of over 55,000 seabirds</a> around European coastlines, including 15,000 guillemots. In that year, the mortality rate of Skomer’s adult guillemots doubled to 12%. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Guillemots mating on Skomer island, UK." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539497/original/file-20230726-15-kg6ywj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extreme weather is becoming more common during the breeding season.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/guillemots-uria-aalge-mating-skomer-island-1055564837">Salparadis/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More worrying is the increasing incidence of extreme weather during the guillemots’ breeding season. Summers are witnessing stronger winds, rougher seas, torrential rain and extreme heat – all of which can reduce guillemot breeding success. </p>
<p>In May 2022, for example, two unseasonal storms resulted in many guillemots losing their eggs from breeding ledges, leading to the lowest breeding success we have seen on Skomer for several decades.</p>
<p>Long-term studies like mine provide the information that allows us to identify and measure the effects of different threats. In a few cases, they may also allow us to take action to minimise their effects. Yet these studies are few and far between.</p>
<p>As I see it, long-term studies on Skomer provide the ammunition that can help us fight the war against climate change and environmental degradation. Now more than ever, it is important that such studies continue.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Birkhead has in the past received funding from the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), the University of Sheffield and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), but for the last ten years the project has been supported entirely by crowd funding</span></em></p>Studying a guillemot colony for 50 years has provided unique insights into how climate change and oil spills affect seabird populations.Tim Birkhead, Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812302022-05-08T12:22:48Z2022-05-08T12:22:48ZOnce the slick is gone: New tool helps scientists monitor chronic oil in Arctic wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461107/original/file-20220503-25-juotko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2658%2C1665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sea lions, otters and birds were some of the many wildlife species that were hit hard by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Oil spills like these expose the wildlife to new contaminants and can be fatal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jack Smith, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/once-the-slick-is-gone--new-tool-helps-scientists-monitor-chronic-oil-in-arctic-wildlife" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>When we think about the Arctic, most of us think of a snow-covered barren landscape and vast stretches of icy ocean. This is far from the reality of the Canadian Arctic today. With approximately <a href="https://arctic-council.org/about/states/canada/">150,000 people calling it home,</a> this region is certainly not barren.</p>
<p>The Arctic is warming <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/arctic-warming-four-times-faster-rest-world">faster than anywhere else on Earth</a>. This stark increase in temperature affects wildlife, plants and humans and results in less sea ice, which many predators and hunters use year-round. </p>
<p>The loss of sea ice is also making the North more accessible than ever, thus increasing the probability of major oil spills as ship and tanker traffic multiplies. These spills expose the wildlife to new contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic compounds — the main contaminant in oil spills — which can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041363">cancer in birds.</a> </p>
<p>This influx of new contaminants in the environment makes it challenging for researchers to monitor their effect on wildlife. After studying ways to monitor the quantity and variety of contaminants in Arctic wildlife, we have created a new tool — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c00229">ToxChip</a> — to analyze changes in the DNA of animals exposed to oil and solve this challenge.</p>
<h2>Increased oil exploration and extraction</h2>
<p>Between 1995 and 2015, shipping traffic <a href="https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4698">nearly tripled in the Canadian Arctic</a> due to depleting sea ice. Newly accessible shipping routes, including the Northern Sea Route, <a href="https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter1/transportation-and-space/polar-shipping-routes/">cut transit time between East Asia and Western Europe by about 10 days</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="oil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461231/original/file-20220504-27-z7xzez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Exxon Valdez tanker discharged over 37,000 tonnes of crude oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, killing thousands of birds and other wildlife.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Gaps III)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/oil-spills-in-the-ocean-arctic/">As the Arctic contains around 13 per cent of the world’s unexploited oil</a>, the race to claim this precious resource is on. Unfortunately, more extraction and shipping in the Arctic will inevitably lead to more oil spills.</p>
<p>The infamous Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 discharged nearly 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into Alaska’s southern coast, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4087623">killing over 30,000 birds</a>. </p>
<p>More recently, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/vladimir-putin-orders-state-of-emergency-huge-fuel-spill-siberia-power-plant-kerch">fuel tank at a power plant released 20,000 tonnes of diesel into the Ambarnaya river</a> in Russia in 2020.</p>
<p>The main compounds found in oil and petroleum products called polycyclic aromatic compounds, or PACs, can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/jmsc.1997.0254">harm birds in the marine environment</a>. When emitted through exhaust or spills, these chemicals make their way into wildlife and plants in the area. They easily attach to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2542-3_4">fat in animals and can accumulate in them throughout their lifetime</a>.</p>
<h2>Birds reveal environmental contaminants</h2>
<p>Seabirds are especially vulnerable to the effects of oil, as they feed on the water surface. Oil can coat a bird’s feathers, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/how-oil-spills-harm-birds-dolphins-sea-lions-and-other-wildlife-1.5613181">making them unable to fly or regulate their temperature</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A bird with oil-covered wings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461215/original/file-20220504-23-euyt2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Birds with oil-covered feathers are unable to fly or regulate their body temperature.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Birds also clean their feathers with their beaks, which introduces oil into their digestive system. Oil and petroleum products also affect birds, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2015-0086">causing stunted limbs, reduced breeding and population declines</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, there are documented long-term effects on ducks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps241271">whose survival rates were lower compared to non-oiled birds for at least 11 years after a spill</a>.</p>
<h2>New technologies can help track contaminants</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Biological-Pathways-Fact-Sheet">Each gene in an animal’s DNA</a> contributes to a specific natural function. Some genes are responsible for regulating an animal’s metabolism, while others take care of suppressing tumours. Therefore, if a specific gene is induced after exposure to a contaminant like oil, we can tell what biological processes have been affected. </p>
<p>Changes in an animal’s gene expression — ability to convert DNA instructions into functional products, like protein — can tell us a lot about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.08.034">how it responds to a specific chemical, or group of chemicals</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4309">Current methods to measure the contaminants in animals</a> are costly, rely heavily on lab animal use and can only measure the effects of one contaminant at a time.</p>
<p>We have developed a new tool called a ToxChip, which investigates the effects of contaminants on the DNA level in sensitive genes. It can quickly detect changes in the genes of seabirds in response to a contaminant. The ToxChip can be customized to species, contaminants and genes of interest. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1393239149646331906"}"></div></p>
<p>So far, we have developed two ToxChips: one for the black guillemot and one for the thick-billed murre. These seabirds nest on rocky cliffs which serve as breeding grounds. </p>
<p>The guillemot doesn’t stray far from its colony and feeds on fish close to the shore. The thick-billed murre, on the other hand, can travel far from the colony and is known for <a href="https://oceana.ca/en/marine-life/thick-billed-murres/">diving deep into the water to catch their prey</a>. </p>
<p>Both species are far from endangered and their colony populations can reach the millions, making it possible to determine the extent to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.057">which contaminants are affecting the birds</a>. As these birds are heavily reliant on open-water food sources, an oil spill could quickly be detrimental to the entire colony. </p>
<p>ToxChips can be applied following an oil spill to quantify potential sub-lethal or irreversible damage. Different types of PACs can tell us where they come from. PACs from forest fires will have a different chemical make-up than PACs from an oil spill. This ToxChip data allows us to determine the cause of toxicity to seabirds. </p>
<p>Through a recent use of the ToxChip, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c00229">we were able to determine the likely effects from a natural oil seep off the coast on Nunavut</a>.</p>
<h2>A cheaper, faster and more affordable solution</h2>
<p>The future applications of this tool are vast and promising. It can help look at the effects of pesticides on bullfrog’s DNA or the impact of plastic pollution on the biological processes in pink salmon and so on. Species-specific ToxChips can help shape evidence-based policy recommendations or monitoring initiatives that would limit vessel traffic in endangered bird areas during the breeding season.</p>
<p>Monitoring contaminants in wildlife is particularly important to those who rely on local country food. Using these tools can help inform those living in the Arctic if the animals they depend on have been exposed to contaminants.</p>
<p>They can be used as an emergency response to an oil spill. Oil can linger long after the clean-up crews have removed the visible oil from the environment. ToxChips can help understand if seabirds continue to be exposed to oil pollution. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People are using high pressured hoses to wash oil from rocks on a beach." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461352/original/file-20220504-17-dqrbiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The toxic components and chemicals released in oil spills can stay in the environment despite cleaning efforts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rob Stapleton, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the tool is still evolving, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b06181">it has been developed</a> for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c00229">two seabird species</a> and is being put into practice currently to assess gene expression changes after a large oil spill and at an old military site with known contamination. </p>
<p>ToxChip projects will make contaminant testing more affordable, more accurate, faster and less dependent on lab animals. It could help reduce the impacts of oil pollution on animals in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Provencher is affiliated with Environment and Climate Change. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasmeen Zahaby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ToxChips study the changes in the DNA of animals exposed to contaminants, like those found in oil spills.Jennifer Provencher, Adjunct professor, Department of Biology, Carleton UniversityYasmeen Zahaby, Masters Student, Department of Biology, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1692152021-10-05T12:26:37Z2021-10-05T12:26:37ZCalifornia’s latest offshore oil spill could fuel pressure to end oil production statewide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424530/original/file-20211004-21-1s1dd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C8%2C2982%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oiled sand in Huntington Beach, Calif., after a 126,000-gallon spill from an offshore oil pipeline.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oil-is-washed-up-on-huntington-state-beach-after-a-126-000-news-photo/1235691140">Nick Ut/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An oil spill first reported on Oct. 2, 2021, has released thousands of gallons of crude oil into southern California coastal waters. The source is believed to be a leak in an underwater pipeline connected to an oil drilling platform 17.5 miles offshore. Oil has washed ashore in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and into coastal marshes. Orange County has requested a federal disaster declaration. Charles Lester, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, explains the scope of this spill.</em></p>
<h2>How large is this spill, and how much coastline is affected?</h2>
<p>Reports estimate that about 126,000 gallons of oil have spilled from a ruptured undersea pipeline, potentially affecting 25 miles of coast in Orange County. As a precaution, the state of California has <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/southern-california-fisheries-closure-implemented-due-to-oil-spill">closed coastal fisheries</a> from Huntington Beach to the city of Dana Point, extending out 6 miles from shore. </p>
<p>This stretch of shoreline includes many extremely important marine and coastal resources, from the <a href="https://bolsachica.org/the-wetlands/ecology/">Bolsa Chica wetlands</a> complex to the <a href="https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27926">Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area</a>. </p>
<p>Wetlands provide critical wildlife habitat and are nurseries for many marine species. The ones in California are part of a network of wetlands along the Pacific coast that <a href="https://pacificbirds.org/birds-migration/the-habitats/">supports many sensitive local and migratory bird species</a>. Rocky shorelines and tide pool areas along the Newport and Laguna coasts are also critically important habitat areas for <a href="https://www.seaandsageaudubon.org/BirdInfo/birdinfoparksoc.htm">birds</a>, <a href="https://explorebeaches.msi.ucsb.edu/sandy-beach-life/marine-mammals">marine mammals</a> and <a href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-wanderer/where-to-spot-socals-coastal-wildlife">other wildlife</a>.</p>
<p>Since Spanish settlement began in the mid-1500s, California has lost <a href="https://mywaterquality.ca.gov/eco_health/wetlands/extent/loss.html">90% or more of its coastal wetlands</a>. That makes the ones that are left, such as the <a href="http://www.santa-ana-river-trail.com/trail/Talbert_Marsh.asp">Talbert Marsh</a> near the mouth of the Santa Ana River, even more important.</p>
<p>Orange County also has dozens of popular beaches that millions of residents and visitors use. They generate <a href="https://www.travelcostamesa.com/visittheoc/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Orange-County-Tourism-Economic-Impact_2017_10052018_FINAL.pdf">billions of dollars in revenue</a> for the state’s coastal economy every year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large group of seals lying at the water's edge." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424595/original/file-20211004-23-hqlic8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seals on the beach in Carpinteria, Calif., near Santa Barbara.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/hsP2m5">Shai Bl/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does this event compare to other major spills in California?</h2>
<p>Offshore oil development always entails some risk of an oil spill. California’s ocean waters have experienced multiple spills over the past 50-plus years. </p>
<p>The largest was the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-oil-spill-50-years-ago-inspired-first-earth-day-180972007/">1969 Santa Barbara offshore oil blowout</a>, which sent more than 3 million gallons of oil onto local beaches. It was a major disaster that helped launch the modern environmental movement. </p>
<p>Other large spills since then include the <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRDA/American-Trader">American Trader tanker spill</a> off the coast of Orange County in 1990, which released 416,000 gallons, and the <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRDA/Refugio">2015 Refugio pipeline spill</a> in Santa Barbara County, which released 123,000 gallons from an underground pipeline on land into the ocean. </p>
<p>Offshore oil production presents spill risks from both platform drilling activities and the facilities that move oil from offshore to refineries and storage facilities on land – including undersea and underground pipelines. The vast array of oil and gas infrastructure along California’s coast requires constant monitoring and maintenance to avoid spills like this one.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of California offshore energy operations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424537/original/file-20211004-27-oofjzn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are 23 oil and gas platforms in federal waters off the southern California coast (14 producing, nine non-producing). There also are four platforms and five artificial islands with oil operations in state waters (seven producing, two being decommissioned).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.slc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Offshore-California.pdf">California State Lands Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What kind of technology does the state have to contain and clean up the oil?</h2>
<p>Time is of the essence in oil spill response. Responders are deploying physical barriers such as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-and-nature-california-environment-wildlife-wetlands-19019fb634f7d13d10a89f11b4b90424">booms and using skimmer boats</a> to contain and clean up oil floating on the ocean’s surface. They also are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-02/coast-guard-rushes-to-contain-newport-beach-oil-slick">constructing sand berms</a> in front of wetlands to protect sensitive areas from oil washing in with the tides. </p>
<p>Other cleanup technologies include using <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/resources/dispersants-guided-tour.html">chemical and biological agents</a> to help break down and disperse oil in the water column, and possibly <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/resources/in-situ-burning.html">burning off oil</a> to help remove it from the water. Aerial reconnaissance will help the Coast Guard and state agencies track the location and scale of the spill. </p>
<h2>What possible impacts of this spill are you most concerned about?</h2>
<p>I am most worried about oil’s <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/how-oil-harms-animals-and-plants-marine-environments.html">acutely toxic effects on marine and coastal wildlife</a>, including seabirds and other species that inhabit our coastal wetlands. Once oil gets into the marshes and sensitive shoreline locations, it becomes <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Oil_Spills_in_Marshes.pdf">very difficult to clean up</a>. </p>
<p>I am also concerned about longer-term impacts to sensitive wetland and rocky shoreline environments. Oil spills have a significant impact on our coastal economies, from fisheries to recreational activities, including beach closures.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rIMu_OuaTKQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Many local officials in California worry that the spill in Huntington Beach could have long-term harmful effects on beaches and wildlife.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Offshore drilling is very unpopular in California. How long do you expect it will continue?</h2>
<p>I expect that many Californians will see this spill as yet more evidence that the state and the nation should make a swift transition to alternative energy sources, such as solar power and offshore wind. Burning oil and other fossil fuels is one of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data">main sources of carbon dioxide emissions</a> that are heating the planet and changing its climate. </p>
<p>Californians are <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-push-for-new-offshore-drilling-is-likely-to-run-aground-in-california-89952">consistently against new offshore oil development</a>: In one recent poll, <a href="https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-the-environment-july-2021.pdf">72% opposed it</a>. That reflects concern about oil spills and effects on fisheries and other competing ocean uses, as well as the impacts of climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Gloved hands holding a small shorebird streaked with oil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424596/original/file-20211004-19-fbyep8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A veterinarian examines an oiled sanderling at a wildlife care center in Huntington Beach on Oct. 4, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/veterinarian-duane-tom-examines-a-sanderling-a-small-shore-news-photo/1235697388">Mindy Schauer/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered that by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/">must be zero-emission vehicles</a>. He also has asked the <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/">California Air Resources Board</a> to analyze how to <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/04/23/governor-newsom-takes-action-to-phase-out-oil-extraction-in-california/">phase out oil extraction statewide by 2045</a>. </p>
<p>Many Californians would like that to <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-should-california-wind-down-its-fossil-fuel-industry">happen even sooner</a>. I’m sure this latest disaster will only intensify pressure to end oil production in California, on land and offshore.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Lester has worked in coastal management for three decades, including 20 years with the California Coastal Commission, a state agency with planning and regulatory authority over coastal development. He served as the agency's executive director from 2011 to 2016. He receives funding for his current work on coastal adaptation to sea level rise from sources including the California Ocean Protection Council and the University of California. He is a board member of Save Our Shores, an ocean and coastal conservation organization, and a member of the Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation.</span></em></p>Offshore oil drilling has a long history in California, but is highly unpopular today. The latest major spill is likely to fuel efforts to wind down oil and gas production statewide.Charles Lester, Director, Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1526412021-02-01T12:11:36Z2021-02-01T12:11:36ZWhy ocean pollution is a clear danger to human health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377023/original/file-20210104-23-1gss1v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C2%2C994%2C661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic waste is the most visible component of ocean pollution.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bali-indonesia-february-12-2017-beach-1036531933">Maxim Blinkov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ocean pollution is widespread, worsening, and poses a clear and present danger to human health and wellbeing. But the extent of this danger has not been widely comprehended – until now. <a href="https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/article/10.5334/aogh.2831/">Our recent study</a> provides the first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of ocean pollution on human health. </p>
<p>Ocean pollution is a complex mixture of toxic metals, plastics, manufactured chemicals, petroleum, urban and industrial wastes, pesticides, fertilisers, pharmaceutical chemicals, agricultural runoff, and sewage. More than 80% arises from land-based sources and it reaches the oceans through rivers, runoff, deposition from the atmosphere – where airborne pollutants are washed into the ocean by rain and snow – and direct dumping, such as pollution from waste water treatment plants and discarded waste. Ocean pollution is heaviest near the coasts and most highly concentrated along the coastlines of low-income and middle-income countries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic showing how sources of ocean pollution" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376987/original/file-20210104-23-86a6lu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘pollution-berg’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Stahl-Timmins/Boston College/Centre Scientifique de Monaco</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ocean pollution can also be found far beyond national jurisdictions in the open oceans, the deepest oceanic trenches, and on the shores of remote islands. Ocean pollution knows no borders. </p>
<h2>The most hazardous ocean pollution</h2>
<p><strong>Plastic waste</strong> is the most visible component of ocean pollution. More than <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/reep/rez012">ten million tonnes</a> of plastic enter the seas every year. The majority of this breaks down into microplastic particles and accumulates in coastal and deep-sea sediments. </p>
<p>Some large pieces float in the water for decades ending up as massive concentrations where currents converge and circulate. The Pacific Ocean’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-might-be-the-worlds-biggest-ocean-but-the-mighty-pacific-is-in-peril-150745">so called “garbage patch”</a> is a well-known example. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-might-be-the-worlds-biggest-ocean-but-the-mighty-pacific-is-in-peril-150745">It might be the world's biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril</a>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/microplastics-have-even-been-blown-into-a-remote-corner-of-the-pyrenees-115503">Microplastics</a> contain multiple toxic chemicals that are added to plastics to make them flexible, colourful, waterproof or flame-resistant. These include carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors – chemicals that interfere with hormones, and can cause cancer, birth defects, and reduced fertility. </p>
<p>These chemical-laden particles enter the food chain and accumulate in fish and shellfish. When humans eat seafood contaminated with these materials, we ingest millions of microplastic particles and the many chemicals they carry. Though there is still <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastics-in-oceans-are-mounting-but-evidence-on-harm-is-surprisingly-weak-93877">debate</a> on the harm to humans from microplastics, exposure to these chemicals increases the risk of all the diseases that they cause. Virtually all of us <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020322297">have microplastics in our bodies</a> today.</p>
<p><strong>Mercury</strong> is widespread in the oceans, and the major culprit is coal burning in <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/publication/global-mercury-assessment-2018">homes and industry</a>. All coal contains mercury, and when it burns, mercury vaporises, enters the atmosphere, and eventually washes into the sea. <a href="https://theconversation.com/gold-rush-mercury-legacy-small-scale-mining-for-gold-has-produced-long-lasting-toxic-pollution-from-1860s-california-to-modern-peru-133324">Gold mining is another source</a>, as mercury is used to dissolve gold from the ore.</p>
<p>Mercury can accumulate to high levels in predatory fish such as tuna and swordfish, which are in turn eaten by us. <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/29830/GMAKF_EN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Contaminated fish</a> can be especially dangerous if eaten by expectant mothers. Exposure of mercury to infants in the womb <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010945215001768?via%3Dihub">can damage</a> developing brains, reducing IQ and increasing risks for autism, ADHD, and other learning disorders. Adult mercury exposure increases risks <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5295325/">for heart disease</a> and <a href="https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-2-8">dementia</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Petroleum pollutants</strong> from oil spills threaten the marine microorganisms that produce much of the Earth’s oxygen by reducing their capacity for photosynthesis. These beneficial microorganisms use solar energy to convert atmospheric CO₂ into oxygen and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-08425-9">are also affected</a> by <a href="https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/persistent-organic-pollutants-global-issue-global-response#pops">organic pollutants</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-poisons-ocean-bacteria-that-produce-10-of-the-worlds-oxygen-and-prop-up-the-marine-food-chain-117493">other chemicals</a>. When there is a major oil spill, the impact can be huge.</p>
<p><strong>Coastal pollution</strong> from industrial waste, agricultural runoff, pesticides, and sewage increases the frequency of harmful algal blooms, known as red tides, brown tides, and green tides. These blooms produce powerful toxins like ciguatera and domoic acid that accumulate in fish and shellfish. When ingested, these toxins can cause dementia, amnesia, paralysis, and even rapid death. When inhaled, they can cause asthma.</p>
<p><strong>Dangerous microorganisms</strong> result from a combination of coastal pollution and warming seas, which encourages their spread. Harmful bacteria such as the vibrio species – found in warmer waters and responsible for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vibrio/index.html">vibriosis</a>, a potentially fatal illness – are now appearing further north and causing life-threatening infections. There’s a high risk that cholera, caused by <em>vibrio cholerae</em>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Reports-of-Vibrio-cholerae-from-sea-water-samples_fig4_277890080">could spread</a> to new, previously unaffected areas.</p>
<p>And the health impacts of ocean pollution fall disproportionately on indigenous peoples, coastal communities and vulnerable populations <a href="https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/article/10.5334/aogh.2831/">in the Global South</a>, underlining the planetary scale of this environmental injustice.</p>
<h2>Political will and scientific evidence</h2>
<p>While the findings in this report are alarming, the good news is that ocean pollution, as with all forms of pollution, can be controlled and prevented. Bans on single-use plastics and better waste sorting can curb pollution at its source, especially plastic waste, both on land and at sea.</p>
<p>Wise governments have curbed other forms of pollution by deploying control strategies based on law, policy, technology, and targeted enforcement. The US, for example, <a href="https://www.corning.com/emea/en/products/environmental-technologies/the-us-has-come-a-long-way-since-the-u-s-clean-air-act.html">has reduced air pollution by 70%</a> since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. They have saved thousands of lives. They have <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32345-0/fulltext">proven highly cost-effective</a>.</p>
<p>Countries around the world are now applying these same tools to control ocean pollution. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00478/full">Boston Harbour in Massachusetts</a> and Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong have been cleaned. Estuaries from Chesapeake Bay in the US to the Seto Inland Sea in Japan have been rejuvenated. Some coral reefs have been restored, such as <a href="https://ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/coral-reefs/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope">those in American Samoa</a>, where vigilance, protection and quick response have happened in relation to various pollution threats.</p>
<p>These successes have boosted economies, increased tourism, restored fisheries, and improved health. They demonstrate that broad control of ocean pollution is feasible and their benefits will last for centuries. Our study <a href="https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/article/10.5334/aogh.2831/">offers some clear recommendations</a> for preventing and controlling ocean pollution, including transitioning to cleaner energy, developing affordable alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics, reducing human, agricultural and industrial discharges, and expanding <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/marine-protected-areas-10558">Marine Protected Areas</a>.</p>
<p>Protecting the planet is a global concern and our collective responsibility. Leaders who recognise the gravity of ocean pollution, acknowledge its growing dangers, engage civil society, and take bold, evidence-based action to stop pollution at source will be essential for preventing ocean pollution and safeguarding our own health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline McGlade receives funding from UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (EPSRC)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Landrigan receives funding from Center Scientifique de Monaco and the Prince Albert II de Monaco Fondation</span></em></p>Polluted oceans don’t just harm wildlife, they are a source of ill health for humans too.Jacqueline McGlade, Professor of Natural Prosperity, Sustainable Development and Knowledge Systems, UCLPhilip Landrigan, Professor and Director, Global Public Health Program and Global Pollution Observatory, Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447492020-08-19T14:31:10Z2020-08-19T14:31:10ZPasha 77: Explainer: the oil spill in Mauritius<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353594/original/file-20200819-24-d65qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>This is not the first time a ship has run aground in Mauritius, the island nation 2,000 kilometres off the south-east coast of Africa. But how and why did it happen again? Could the government have done more to prevent the spillage that is wreaking havoc on the coastal systems? What will the impact be for the biodiversity? What will it take to clean up this mess and avoid situations like these in the future? </p>
<p>In today’s episode of Pasha, Adam Moolna, a lecturer in environment and sustainability at Keele University, answers these and other questions on the Mauritian oil spill disaster. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mauritius-is-reeling-from-a-spreading-oil-spill-and-people-are-angry-with-how-the-government-has-handled-it-144288">Mauritius is reeling from a spreading oil spill – and people are angry with how the government has handled it</a>
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<p><strong>Photo:</strong>
“A picture taken on August 15, 2020 shows the partially submerged Japanese owned Panama-flagged bulk carrier MV Wakashio as the mid section of the vessel broke in two near Blue Bay Marine Park off the coast of south-east Mauritius. Rough seas have since hampered efforts to stop fuel leaking from the bulk carrier and staining pristine waters in an ecologically protected marine area. By <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-taken-on-august-15-2020-shows-the-partially-news-photo/1228058064?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></p>
<p><strong>Music</strong>
"Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Sad_Drama_Romantic_Stinger” by SoundFlakes, found on <a href="https://freesound.org/people/SoundFlakes/sounds/413732/">Freesound</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Attribution license</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
After the oil spill, the usual sight of families strolling by the sea was quickly replaced by volunteers working hard in a concerted effort to protect their coast.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1369052020-04-23T12:11:30Z2020-04-23T12:11:30ZBP paid a steep price for the Gulf oil spill but for the US a decade later, it’s business as usual<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329808/original/file-20200422-47832-cuxvpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pools of floating crude oil at the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, April 27, 2010.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pools-of-crude-oil-float-on-the-surface-of-gulf-of-mexico-news-photo/106490050?adppopup=true">Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history began ten years ago, on April 20, 2010. A massive explosion killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and a blowout spewed more than 3 million barrels of oil from the Macondo well, located 70 miles off the coast of Louisiana.</p>
<p>For three months the oil company, BP, struggled to contain its runaway well, which it finally capped on July 12 and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill">permanently sealed in mid-September</a>. By that time, oil coated more than 1,000 miles of coastline in six states and covered <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/Chapter-2_Incident-Overview.pdf">over 40,000 square miles</a> of the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>This spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. After a dreadful start, BP and its drilling partners removed most of the oil from Gulf coast beaches over the next several years; the visible sheen of the oil slick eventually disappeared as well. But studies indicate that it will take parts of the Gulf, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-found-oil-from-the-deepwater-horizon-blowout-in-fishes-livers-and-on-the-deep-ocean-floor-133145">deep ocean ecosystems</a>, decades to recover. We may never know the full extent of the ecological damage.</p>
<p>BP paid dearly for the reckless corporate culture of <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/years-of-internal-bp-probes-warned-that-neglect-could-lead-to-accidents">cost-cutting and excessive risk-taking</a> that caused the spill: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/16/bps-deepwater-horizon-bill-tops-65bn">more than US$60 billion</a> in criminal and civil penalties, natural resource damages, economic claims and cleanup costs. Indeed, from a legal standpoint, the legacy of the Gulf oil spill is the sheer size of the payout, which ushered in an era of multibillion dollar criminal and civil penalties for environmental and other corporate crimes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists still don’t know the total environmental impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In most other respects, however, the legal landscape governing offshore drilling is unchanged from before the spill. The U.S. still outsources drilling safety and spill cleanup to industry, which has proven far more adept at extracting oil than protecting the environment.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Americans have yet to heed the spill’s wake-up call to reduce our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy. From my perspective as an <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=duhlmann">environmental law professor</a> and the former chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section, that failure stands out as the continuing tragedy of the spill.</p>
<h2>Holding BP accountable</h2>
<p>BP endured years of costly litigation in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. In 2012 the company reached an agreement with the Justice Department to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/bp-exploration-and-production-inc-agrees-plead-guilty-felony-manslaughter-environmental">plead guilty to 14 criminal counts</a>, including manslaughter, obstruction of Congress and violations of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act">Clean Water Act</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-borders-why-we-need-global-action-to-protect-migratory-birds-62070">Migratory Bird Treaty Act</a>.</p>
<p>The company paid a $4.5 billion dollar criminal penalty – the largest in U.S. history at that time. For comparison, the previous record was a $1.3 billion criminal fine paid by Pfizer for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-largest-health-care-fraud-settlement-its-history">pharmaceutical fraud</a> in 2009. The largest penalty for environmental crime was the $125 million fine imposed on Exxon for the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-and-state-alaska-opt-not-recover-additional-damages-exxon-mobil-under-reopener">Valdez oil spill</a> in 1990.</p>
<p>In 2015 the Justice Department and Gulf coast states reached a record civil settlement with BP that <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/explainers/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-settlements-where-money-went">totaled over $20 billion</a>, including a $5.5 billion civil penalty under the Clean Water Act, $8.1 billion in natural resource damages and $5.9 billion in payments to state and local governments. BP also paid about $15 billion in cleanup costs and another $20 billion in economic damages to companies and individuals harmed by the spill.</p>
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<span class="caption">Activists at the Hale Boggs Federal Building in New Orleans on the first day of the trial over the Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill, February 25, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/activists-holds-signs-during-a-protest-in-front-of-the-hale-news-photo/162642094?adppopup=true">Sean Gardner/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The BP settlements set benchmarks that influenced the size of penalties imposed for subsequent corporate wrongdoing. Volkswagen paid more than $30 billion for the 2015 revelation that it <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dieselgate-has-brought-vw-benefits-too-11552660674">cheated on diesel emission standards</a> by rigging software in its cars. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have paid <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-have-been-fined-a-staggering-243-billion-since-the-financial-crisis-2018-02-20">billions of dollars</a> in fines since the 2008-2009 financial crisis for misconduct that included mortgage fraud.</p>
<p>BP was worth more than $180 billion at the time of the Gulf oil spill and is still one of the largest companies in the world. But it was on the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/09/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html">brink of collapse</a> after the spill, and few other companies could afford the costs BP incurred. From a corporate accountability and deterrence standpoint, the settlements were a significant achievement that should deter similar misconduct.</p>
<h2>No new laws</h2>
<p>Apart from the landmark settlements, the legal legacy of the Gulf oil spill is more modest than previous spills that motivated Congress to enact new laws. The <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/45-years-after-santa-barbara-oil-spill-looking-historic-disaster-through-technology.html">1969 Santa Barbara oil spill</a> helped prompt passage of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act">Clean Water Act</a> in 1972, which transformed rivers and streams that were open sewers into fishable and swimmable waters. The Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 resulted in the <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/emergencies/content/lawsregs/web/html/opaover.html">Oil Pollution Act of 1990</a>, which made it possible for companies like BP to pay civil penalties for oil spills in addition to criminal fines.</p>
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<p>In response to the Deepwater Horizon spill, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.restorethegulf.gov/history/about-restore-act">RESTORE Act</a> in 2012, but this served only to ensure that civil penalties paid to the federal government by BP and its partners would be shared with Gulf coast states. The law was silent about drilling safety and future oil spills. Congress also did not act on recommendations made by the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf">bipartisan commission</a> that President Obama appointed to investigate the spill and offshore drilling, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-after-the-deepwater-horizon-explosion-offshore-drilling-is-still-unsafe-132846">increasing energy companies’ liability limits for oil spills</a>.</p>
<p>In terms of new regulations, the initial response was promising. The Obama administration imposed a brief moratorium on offshore drilling, reorganized the relevant offices within the Interior Department and enacted safety rules to prevent future oil spills. But the Trump administration has <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-offshore-oil-drilling-plans-ignore-the-lessons-of-bp-deepwater-horizon-89570">reversed many of these rules</a> and pushed to expand offshore drilling, even though this policy is <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-offshore-drilling-plan-may-be-dead-in-the-water-but-there-are-better-ways-to-lead-on-energy-116121">unpopular in many coastal states</a> and faces significant legal obstacles.</p>
<p>The net result, 10 years after the Gulf oil spill, is that the U.S. still depends on companies like BP to conduct their activities safely, despite painful experience that doing so is risky. Today the oil industry is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/climate/deepwater-horizon-anniversary.html">more committed to well containment efforts</a> than it was in 2010, but there is no indication that a blowout today would be any less of a disaster.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329817/original/file-20200422-47804-1mnund9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Planning areas (blue) and active leases (green) for offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico as of April 1, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/oil-gas-energy/leasing/regional-leasing/gulf-mexico-region/Lease%20Statistics%20April%202020.pdf">BOEM</a></span>
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<p>The U.S. has not quenched its insatiable thirst for oil, even after the Gulf oil spill laid bare the risks of offshore drilling and evidence has mounted about the havoc of climate disruption. U.S. oil production <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=40032">set records through 2019</a> and may do so again once the nation emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>BP paid for its reckless conduct in the Gulf. The question that remains a decade later is when the U.S. will address its societal responsibility for the disaster.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David M. Uhlmann served for 17 years at the U.S. Department of Justice, the last seven as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section, where he was the top environmental crimes prosecutor in the country. He led an office of approximately 40 prosecutors responsible for the prosecution of environmental and wildlife crimes.</span></em></p>The Deepwater Horizon disaster set new records for holding polluters to account. But it had much less impact on laws regulating offshore drilling or US oil dependence.David M. Uhlmann, Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice and Director, Environmental Law and Policy Program, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333322020-04-16T12:19:11Z2020-04-16T12:19:11ZCoastal fish populations didn’t crash after the Deepwater Horizon spill – why not?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328174/original/file-20200415-153351-18v9b9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oil sheen in a Louisiana marsh that was heavily affected by the 2010 BP spill, Sept. 27, 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gulf-Oil-Spill-Trial/9642f222552d4a7b87c4782c1641c703/24/0">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1195840">4 to 5 million barrels of oil</a> into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, some early projections estimated that the toll on fisheries could reach <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/f2011-171">US$5-10 billion</a> by 2020. Chemicals in crude oil may affect fish and other marine creatures directly, through their toxicity, or indirectly by harming their food or habitat, and the effects can be immediate or long-term.</p>
<p>I began conducting <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=imy3JY0AAAAJ&hl=en">marine science research</a> in the northern Gulf of Mexico in 2006, and was immediately taken by the diversity of fishes, water bodies, habitats and economic sectors along the coast. This region is still home to my favorite saltwater environments – places like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandeleur_Islands">Chandeleur Islands</a> off Louisiana, and Florida’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph_Bay">St. Joseph Bay</a>. </p>
<p>From 2006-2009, I worked with teams studying the ecology of fishes that inhabit the tidal salt marshes and underwater seagrass meadows of the northern Gulf. As the Deepwater Horizon spill unfolded, I shared many other people’s deep concerns about the terrible human toll, and the ecological and economic damage to places like the sensitive shores where I had worked. </p>
<p>Ten years later, though, there’s some welcome good news. In our research, my colleagues and I have found that the Deepwater Horizon spill did not appear to cause significant oiling injury to coastal fish populations. </p>
<p>It’s a remarkable outcome, and a sharp contrast to the spill’s effects farther from shore, where it <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/apr17/dwh-protected-species.html">killed thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191164">severely harmed life on the seafloor</a>. Why did coastal fisheries fare better? The answers are complex, and likely due to multiple mechanisms that we don’t fully understand. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Oiling along the Louisiana coast during the Deepwater Horizon spill, June 8, 2010.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Coastal fish populations hold steady</h2>
<p>The Deepwater Horizon blowout started on April 20, 2010, and the well was not capped until <a href="https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill">July 15</a>. A month after the blowout, oil began encroaching on salt marshes and seagrass meadows across the northern Gulf, with inshore surface slicks persisting through August. </p>
<p>This period overlapped with a seasonal peak in fish reproduction and immigration of larval fishes into estuaries – coastal zones where fresh and salt water mix, and underwater <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/oceans/seagrass-meadows.htm">seagrass meadows</a> provide food and habitat.</p>
<p>Using data from our pre-spill research – which sampled seagrass habitats in 12 estuaries from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle – as a baseline, marine scientist Kenneth Heck and I resurveyed these same areas in the summer and fall of 2010. We found that the abundances of juvenile fishes such as drums, croakers, flounders and snappers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021609">had not fallen below normal levels</a>. In fact, catch rates for many species were higher relative to 2006-2009. </p>
<p>This pattern has held since 2011. Abundances of seagrass-associated fishes have continued to match pre-spill patterns across our study sites. </p>
<p>Since these findings were published, we and other scientists have found similarly stable fish populations in diverse coastal areas hit by Deepwater Horizon oil. They include salt marsh-associated fishes in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9890-6">Louisiana</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058376">Alabama</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2015.1111253">estuarine fishes throughout Mississippi Sound</a>, coastal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-017-0374-0">Gulf menhaden</a>, and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0108884">shrimp in Louisiana bays</a>. </p>
<p>Recently, I’ve been working with a talented undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to revisit commercial and recreational fishery harvest data going back to 2000. Those data, extending to 2017, also indicate remarkable stability in fish and shellfish harvests across the northern Gulf in the decade following the spill. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328180/original/file-20200415-153318-1iovzfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Juvenile gray snapper, spotted seatrout, and pipefish sampled from Gulf of Mexico seagrass meadows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Raines</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Searching for causes</h2>
<p>This lack of apparent oiling impact on fish populations is actually consistent with the aftermath of other oil spills, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(00)00075-8">smaller-scale events in the Gulf</a> and others in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(03)00161-9">the Galapagos in 2001, near New York in 1990, and off Santa Barbara in 1969</a>. It even was true for the 1989 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Exxon-Valdez-oil-spill">Exxon Valdez spill</a>, which released 11 million gallons of oil in a prime fishing zone along Alaska’s coast. </p>
<p>In that infamous case, Pacific herring were the single major fishery stock that collapsed. Even that didn’t occur until five years later, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsm176">the cause is still debated</a>. My own view is that some indirect, delayed instability related to oiling likely did impact those herring, although menhaden – an analogous fish in the Gulf of Mexico - have not shown signs of collapse following the Deepwater Horizon spill.</p>
<p>Fishes’ general resilience to oiling at the population level is even more surprising given what we know about how hydrocarbon exposure affects individual fish. In both lab experiments and fieldwork after Deepwater Horizon, scientists found that exposure to hydrocarbon compounds in oil and dispersants used to break down slicks during the spill harmed individual fish. </p>
<p>Indeed, a review I conducted with other marine scientists and toxicologists in 2014 found that in about 99% of cases, individual fish exposed to concentrations as low as one part per billion of weathered oil and/or Corexit dispersant from the Deepwater Horizon spill <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu123">showed negative responses</a>. They included changes in genomic expression, physiological performance, reduced reproduction, abnormal behavior and lower survival.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328179/original/file-20200415-153313-ygjcg2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Coastal Waters Consortium sampling salt marsh fishes in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, May 29, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthony Vastano</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So why don’t these individual-level damages appear to show up as losses at population or community levels? </p>
<p>First, since oiling in many estuaries was highly patchy, it’s possible that many fishes, and some crabs and shrimp, were simply able to move away from it. Second, the fact that the spill affected many marine birds and mammals might have reduced predation on smaller fishes.</p>
<p>The blowout also affected another key predator: humans. The spill response included large-scale fishery closures in the northern Gulf, which may have allowed for more reproduction by surviving adults in the spring and summer of 2010. This, in turn, would have showed up as greater abundances of fishes over the following months and years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328178/original/file-20200415-153334-1xei2jh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fishery closures during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, June 21, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill_fishing_closure_map_2010-06-21.png">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Short- and long-term disasters</h2>
<p>Quantifying how ecosystems respond to broadscale impacts of something like a massive oil spill is extremely complex, especially when scientists can’t test all of the possible explanations for what they find. Researchers can expose fish to oil and dispersant in a lab and see how they react, but they can’t go out and dump oil in a marsh to replicate the spill, or replay the 2010 fishing season without spill closures.</p>
<p>My decade studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has made me reconsider the relative impacts of “pulse” versus “press” disturbances on coastal fishes. Pulse disturbances are big, one-time events like oil spills or hurricanes. Press disturbances are more gradual and have more insidious effects that accumulate over time. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01889.x">Climate change</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/150065">coastal habitat degradation</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19425120.2013.786001">intense fishing</a> are examples.</p>
<p>Pulse disturbances tend to capture more headlines, but my emerging view is that press disturbances can have bigger negative effects over the long term. Therefore, I hope the 10th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster leads to a wider discussion of ways in which humans affect our coasts and oceans.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>F. Joel Fodrie receives funding from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative via the Coastal Waters Consortium. Funders had no role in the design, execution, or analyses of the author's research.</span></em></p>The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill caused widespread damage in the Gulf of Mexico, but some parts of this complex ecosystem fared better than others.F. Joel Fodrie, Associate Professor of Marine Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1331452020-04-13T12:16:27Z2020-04-13T12:16:27ZScientists have found oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout in fishes’ livers and on the deep ocean floor<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327260/original/file-20200410-123487-xvzg5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4608%2C3456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers use Atlantic mackerel for bait on long-lining fishing sampling expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico..</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/y87FdG">C-IMAGE Consortium</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the decade since the Deepwater Horizon spill, thousands of scientists have analyzed its impact on the Gulf of Mexico. The spill affected many different parts of the Gulf, from coastal marshes to the deep sea.</p>
<p>At the Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of the Gulf Ecosystem, or <a href="https://www.marine.usf.edu/c-image/">C-IMAGE</a> at the University of South Florida, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steven_Murawski">marine scientists</a> have been analyzing these effects since 2011. C-IMAGE has received funding from the <a href="https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/">Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative</a> – a broad, independent research program initially funded by a US$500 million grant from BP, the company held principally responsible for the spill.</p>
<p>Our findings and those of many other academic, government and industry researchers have filled <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030116040">two</a> <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030129620">books</a>. These works seek to quantify the <a href="http://beneaththehorizon.org/">past and future impacts of oil spills</a>, and to help prevent such accidents from ever happening again. Here are some important findings on how the Deepwater Horizon disaster <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xojG5JF5TC4&feature=youtu.be">affected Gulf of Mexico ecosystems</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327255/original/file-20200410-192985-o1i90x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sediment cores from the seabed preserve evidence of oil that has settled onto the seafloor from historical spills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/xfvDi9">C-IMAGE Consortium</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Oil in fish and sediments</h2>
<p>Before the spill, baseline data on oil contamination in fishes and sediments in the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. This kind of information is critical for assessing impacts from a spill and calculating how quickly the ecosystem can return to its previous, pre-spill state. Oil was already present in the Gulf from <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/largest-oil-spills-affecting-us-waters-1969.html">past spills</a> and <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/oil/natural-oil-seeps">natural seeps</a>, but the Deepwater Horizon was the largest accidental spill in the ocean anywhere in the world. </p>
<p>C-IMAGE researchers developed the first comprehensive baseline of oil contamination in the Gulf’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10033">fishes</a> and sediments, including all waters off the United States, Mexico and Cuba. Researchers spent almost 250 days at sea, sampling over 15,000 fishes and taking over 2,500 sediment cores. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327188/original/file-20200410-100943-1y6op0h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research cruises on the RV Weatherbird II and the RV Justo Sierra took scientists all over the Gulf of Mexico from 2011 to 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">C-IMAGE Consortium</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Repeated sampling from 2011 through 2018 of the region around the spill site has produced estimates of how quickly various species are able to overcome oil pollution; impacts on the health of various species, from microbes to whales; and how fast oil stranded on the bottom has become buried in sediments. </p>
<p>Importantly, no fish yet sampled anywhere in the Gulf has been free of hydrocarbons – a telling sign of chronic and ongoing pollution in the Gulf. It is not known if similar findings would result from ecosystem-wide studies elsewhere because such surveys are rare.</p>
<p>Many commercially important fish species were affected by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Researchers found skin lesions on red snapper from the northern Gulf in the months after the spill, but the lesions became <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2014.911205">less frequent and severe by 2012</a>. There is other evidence of ongoing and increasing exposures to hydrocarbons over time in economically and environmentally important species like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b01870">golden tilefish</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135551">grouper</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4596">hake</a> as well as red snapper. </p>
<p>Increasing concentrations of hydrocarbons in liver tissues of some species, such as groupers, suggest these fish have experienced long-term exposure to oil. Chronic exposures have been associated with the decline of health indices in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4583">tilefish</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135551">grouper</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0VZPhbhdTsA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists embark on a ‘mud and blood’ research cruise in 2016 to collect and analyze fish and soil samples near the Deepwater Horizon spill site.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To complement field studies, scientists created an oil exposure test facility at Florida’s <a href="https://mote.org/locations/details/mote-aquaculture-park">Mote Aquaculture Research Park</a> to assess how contact with oil affected adult fishes. For example, southern flounder that were exposed to oiled sediments for 35 days showed evidence of <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324863#what-is-it">oxidative stress</a>, a cellular imbalance that can cause decreased fertility, increased cellular aging and premature death. </p>
<p>Fishes that live in deeper waters, from depths of about 650 to 3,300 feet (200 to 1,000 meters) were also affected. These fish are especially important because they are a food source for larger commercially relevant fish, marine mammals and birds. </p>
<p>Researchers found increased concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – chemicals that occur naturally in crude oil – in fish tissues after the spill. In 2015-2016, PAH levels were <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b02243">still higher than pre-spill levels</a>. Evidence indicates that the main sources of this contamination are through fishes’ diets and transfers from female fish to their eggs.</p>
<h2>Oil on the sea floor</h2>
<p>Much of the oil released in the spill created huge slicks at the water’s surface. But significant quantities of crude oil also were deposited at the bottom of the deep sea. </p>
<p>It was carried there by <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happened-to-the-oil-from-the-deepwater-horizon-spill-marine-snow-provides-a-clue-40532">marine snow</a> – clumps of plankton, fecal pellets, biominerals and soil particles washed into the Gulf from land. In a process that occurs throughout the world’s oceans, these particles sink through the water column, transporting large quantities of material to the sea floor. In the Gulf, they attached to oil droplets as they descended. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327203/original/file-20200410-44188-15hdnwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marine snow (clumps of organic and mineral particles) in Gulf of Mexico waters carried oil and burnt hydrocarbons to the sea floor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Warren</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the spill, responders <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Eco/oil-spill-guif-mexico-burning-slick-reaches-louisiana/story?id=10499012">set parts of the massive surface slick on fire</a> in an effort to prevent it from reaching beaches and marshes. Crude oil contains thousands of different carbon compounds that become more toxic after they are burned. Post-spill studies showed that these compounds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.05.019">can be trapped in marine snow</a>, covering the seabed and harming organisms that live there.</p>
<p>Researchers coined the term MOSSFA (marine oil snow sedimentation and flocculent accumulation) to describe this mechanism for deposition of significant oil on the seabed. Thanks to this research, MOSSFA has been incorporated into models that U.S. government agencies use for oil spill response. C-IMAGE researchers have also developed methods to <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-12963-7_21">predict the intensity of MOSSFA</a> if a similar-sized oil spill occurs anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>Post-spill studies found that levels of oil compounds on the seafloor in the area affected by the spill were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.05.019">two to three times higher than background levels</a> elsewhere in the Gulf. Sediment cores taken from around the wellhead showed that the density of minute single-celled organisms called <a href="https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/little-critters-tell-big-story-benthic-foraminifera-and-gulf-oil-spill">foraminifera</a>, which are abundant throughout the world’s oceans and are a food source for other fishes, squids and marine mammals, declined by 80% to 90% over 10 months following the event, and their species diversity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120565">declined by 30% to 40%</a>.</p>
<p>Oxygen levels in these sediments also decreased in the three years following the spill, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.12.009">degrading conditions for organisms living at the sea floor</a>. As a result of changes like these, researchers project that it will take perhaps <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070540">50 to 100 years for the deep ocean ecosystem to recover</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327258/original/file-20200410-76208-l8iwo9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commercial and sport fishing generate millions of dollars in revenues for Gulf coast states. The Deepwater Horizon spill affected many popular species, including grouper, red snapper and flounder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.iimef.marines.mil/Photos/igphoto/2001535717">Lance Cpl. Brianna Gaudi, USMC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More transparency from the oil industry</h2>
<p>Scientists are still assessing key questions about the Gulf’s ecological health, such as how long it will take for deep ecosystems to recover and what the lasting impacts are of episodic pollution events on top of chronic exposure. But here are some steps that would make it easier to measure both chronic effects of oil pollution and impacts from large-scale spills. </p>
<p>Today, the only discharge that offshore oil and gas producers are required to measure is from “produced water” – natural water that comes up from beneath the sea floor along with oil and gas. And they are only required to report its hydrocarbon concentrations, even though the water can contain metals and radioactive material. </p>
<p>In our view, they should also be required to routinely monitor oil contaminants in water, sediments and marine life near each platform, just as wastewater treatment plants periodically gather data on what they are discharging. This would provide a baseline for analyzing impacts from future spills and for detecting leaks hidden from the surface. </p>
<p>Researchers would also like to see more transparency in data sharing about the industry – including routine equipment failures, <a href="https://www.boem.gov/environment/environmental-assessment/questions-answers-and-related-resources">other discharges</a> such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/drilling-mud">drilling muds</a> and other operational details – and greater U.S. engagement with Mexico and Cuba on oil exploration and spill response. As oil and gas production moves into ever-deeper waters, the goal should be to respond faster, more effectively and with a better understanding of what’s happening in real time.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Murawski receives funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Tampa Bay Estuary program</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherryl Gilbert receives funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program through the University of South Florida.</span></em></p>The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster catalyzed a decade of research on oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico, from surface waters to the seabed, with surprising findings.Steven Murawski, Downtown Partnership-Peter Betzer Endowed Chair in Biological Oceanography, University of South FloridaSherryl Gilbert, Assistant Director, C-IMAGE Consortium, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1328462020-04-10T12:13:54Z2020-04-10T12:13:54ZA decade after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, offshore drilling is still unsafe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322433/original/file-20200323-112661-2ww9x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C6%2C1404%2C876&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A satellite image of the oil slick as it looked in late May 2010, a month after the Deepwater Horizon well exploded. The oil plume looks grayish white. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCWW5xt3Hc8">NASA/Goddard/Jen Shoemaker and Stu Snodgrass </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ten years ago, on April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 crew members and starting the <a href="https://darrp.noaa.gov/oil-spills/deepwater-horizon">largest ocean oil spill in history</a>. Over the next three months, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03flow.html">between 4 million and 5 million barrels</a> of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. </p>
<p>I was a member of the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf">oil spill commission</a> appointed by President Obama to investigate the causes of the disaster. Later, I served as a courtroom witness for the government on the effects of the spill. While scientists now know more about these effects, risks of deepwater blowouts remain, and the energy industry and government responders still have only very limited ability to control where the oil goes once it’s released from the well.</p>
<p>The spill commission found that <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-OILCOMMISSION">multiple identifiable mistakes caused the blowout</a>. Our report cast doubt over how safety was addressed across the offshore oil industry and the government’s ability to regulate it. </p>
<p>As the oil spill commission’s report showed, drilling ever deeper into the Gulf involved risks for which neither industry nor government was adequately prepared. The industry had felt so sure that a blowout would not happen that it lacked the capacity to contain it. Neither BP nor the government could do much to control or clean up the spill. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323715/original/file-20200327-146712-22cnjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burning on April 21, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gulf-Oil-Spill-Trial/e0feaddb2e604d858535807c0ee1973f/64/0">Gerald Herbert/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Safety improvements are threatened</h2>
<p>The presidential commission recommended numerous reforms to reduce the risks and environmental damages from offshore oil and gas development. The industry developed <a href="https://www.noia.org/offshore-energy/safety/response-containment-systems/">systems to contain blowouts</a> in deep water and has deployed them worldwide. Improvements in operational safety were made within companies and <a href="https://www.centerforoffshoresafety.org/">across the industry</a>. </p>
<p>The Department of the Interior acted quickly to reorganize its units. It created a <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/who-we-are/about-us">Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement</a> to avoid conflicts of interests with its leasing, development and revenue collection responsibilities. After four years in development, the bureau issued <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/04/29/2016-08921/oil-and-gas-and-sulfur-operations-in-the-outer-continental-shelf-blowout-preventer-systems-and-well">new well control rules</a> in 2016 governing drilling safety. </p>
<p>But despite progress on a number of fronts, Congress has not enacted legislation to improve safety or even raise energy companies’ ridiculously low liability limits for oil spills – currently just <a href="https://www.boem.gov/newsroom/press-releases/boem-adjusts-limit-liability-oil-spills-offshore-facilities">US$134 million</a> for offshore facilities like the Deepwater Horizon. The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/bsee-finalizes-improved-blowout-preventer-and-well-control-regulations">reversed or relaxed safety reforms</a>. It has loosened the safe pressure margins allowed in a well, dispensed with independent inspections of blowout protectors and removed requirements for continuous onshore monitoring of offshore drilling. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/esliY9Miej0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, rules adopted post-spill to make offshore operations safer are being relaxed.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of these changes were <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/484837-political-appointees-urged-rollback-of-deepwater-horizon-inspired">ordered by political appointees</a> over the recommendations of the safety bureau’s technical experts. While the bureau is charged with focusing singularly on <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/who-we-are/about-us">safety and the environment</a>, its director, <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/who-we-are/our-organization/leadership/director">Scott Angelle</a>, has been a <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/investing/offshore-oil-drilling-safety-trump-bsee/index.html">prominent proponent</a> of the administration’s aggressive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-unleashing-american-energy-dominance/">“energy dominance”</a> strategy, ordering expanded oil production and elimination of costly regulations. Imagine the message this sends about priorities to people in government and industry who are responsible for ensuring safety.</p>
<h2>Where contamination lingers</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324759/original/file-20200401-23143-bka6u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This conception of the deep plume shows how oil rose from the well. At a depth of 1 kilometer, bacteria consumed the oil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es2013227">Adapted from Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/ES2013227</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the deep Gulf of Mexico ecosystem was egregiously understudied in all respects, while a <a href="https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/oil-and-gas-energy-program/Leasing/Five-Year-Program/2019-2024/DPP/NP-Economic-Benefits.pdf">multi-billion-dollar industry</a>.
intruded into it. Now scientists know much more about what happens when large quantities of oil and gas are released in a seafloor blowout. </p>
<p>Scientists learned much about the effects of the spill through monitoring the blowout, assessing damages to natural resources and investigating the fate and effects of escaping oil. More has been spent on these studies and more results published than for any previous oil spill. </p>
<p>A substantial portion of oil released from the mile-deep well was entrained in a plume of droplets spreading out 3,000 feet below the Gulf’s surface. Footprints of contamination and effects extended <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw8863">far beyond the area where oil slicks were observed</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mCWW5xt3Hc8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Two NASA satellites recorded day-by-day images of the Gulf after the blowout, from April 20 through May 24, 2010.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly all of the oil released has since degraded. Populations of most affected organisms have recovered. But contamination lingers in sediments in the deep Gulf, and in some marshes and beaches where oil came ashore. Populations of <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/Chapter-4_Injury_to_Natural_Resources_508.pdf">long-lived animals the oil killed </a> might not recover for decades. These include sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, seabirds and <a href="https://theconversation.com/deepwater-corals-thrive-at-the-bottom-of-the-ocean-but-cant-escape-human-impacts-104211">deepwater corals</a>. </p>
<p>And yet, as scientists synthesize results from this <a href="https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/">10-year research initiative</a>, very little practical advice is emerging about what can be done to respond more effectively to future blowouts from ever-deeper drilling in the Gulf. </p>
<p>Surely, we can more rapidly contain blowouts. The effectiveness of injecting chemical dispersants into the plume gushing from the well <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-12963-7_29">remains in debate</a>. How much oil do dispersants keep from reaching the surface, where it threatens those working to stanch the blowout, as well as birds, sea turtles and coastal ecosystems? But the research has not revealed more effective approaches in controlling released oil. </p>
<h2>Safety first is the big lesson</h2>
<p>As I see it, the essential lesson from Deepwater Horizon is that industry and government should be putting their greatest energies into preventing operational accidents, blowouts and releases. Yet the Trump administration emphasizes <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-offshore-oil-drilling-plans-ignore-the-lessons-of-bp-deepwater-horizon-89570">increasing production and reducing regulations</a>. This undermines safety improvements made over the past 10 years. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the price of crude oil – already low because of high fracked oil production in the U.S. – has <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oil-shock-of-2020-appears-to-be-here-and-the-pain-could-be-wide-and-deep-133293">declined drastically</a> since the beginning of 2020. Saudi and Russian oil had already glutted the market when the coronavirus pandemic reduced oil consumption.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1244955168728375296"}"></div></p>
<p>The federal government’s March 2020 oil and gas lease sale for the Gulf of Mexico yielded the lowest response in four years – <a href="https://www.oedigital.com/news/476766-u-s-offshore-oil-lease-sale-weakest-since-2016">$93 million in high bids</a>, compared to $159 million in the previous round. To prop up the industry and maintain production, the Trump administration is seeking to <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/032020-interior-considers-lowering-us-federal-royalty-rates-for-next-gulf-lease-sale-sources">lower royalty rates</a> and store excess production in the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/491111-oil-giants-meet-at-white-house-amid-talk-of-buying-strategic">Strategic Petroleum Reserve</a>. </p>
<p>But as industry acts to cut its expenditures and downsize staff, will safety costs be a priority? </p>
<p>National energy policy was beyond the charge of the 2010 commission, but 10 years later, it is impossible to consider the future of offshore oil and gas without factoring in the need to <a href="https://www.agu.org/Share-and-Advocate/Share/Policymakers/Position-Statements/Position_Climate">eliminate net greenhouse gas emission within 30 years</a> to limit climate change. Why would the United States consider expanding offshore exploration and drilling that might yield fossil fuels only 20 years from now? </p>
<p>Even in the historically developed Gulf of Mexico, rather than just “drill, baby, drill,” I believe the U.S. should be developing a realistic transition plan for phasing out offshore fossil fuel production. Such a strategy should encompass not only ensuring high standards for safety and industry responsibility for abandoned infrastructure during the drawdown, but also an economic evolution for the region, including opportunities for carbon sequestration and renewable energy production. We need to ensure that there will be a vibrant and productive Gulf long after we cease removing its oil. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Boesch served on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, a bipartisan presidential commission that operated in 2010-2011. He also served as an expert witness for the U.S. government in its lawsuit against BP for natural resource damages as a result of the spill.</span></em></p>The BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on April 20, 2010 triggered the largest offshore oil spill in history. Ten years later, post-spill reforms are being undone and the Gulf of Mexico remains vulnerable.Donald Boesch, Professor of Marine Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.