Heredia 9
Jaquelin HerediaProfessor Santosh KhadkaEnglish 114B22 April
2015The effects of Oil Spills in the OceanI. IntroductionThroughout
history the public has witnessed several disasters that affected
our oceans one of them are oil spills. I will be researching in
particular the effects oil spills had on the ocean and how an oil
spill affects the way of life in the ocean as time passes. In
particular some of the more current oil spills that caused a major
amount of damage were oil spills that occurred in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010 and the oil spill that occurred in Cosco Busan Bay
area in 2007. These two oil spills were large and horrendous that
caused a major amount of damage to the ocean. Over the years people
have slowly forgotten of the large pollution we had dumped into the
ocean after the oil spills occurred but in order to understand if
the problem is gone or not I will do research that tells how the
ocean has evolved since the accidents occurred. The ocean has been
able to rid itself of the majority of the oil but due to the large
amount of oil the water was exposed to the way of life in the ocean
may never be the same.II. BackgroundOn November 7, 2007 in the San
Francisco Bay Area a container ship known as the Cusco Busan was in
the harbor and had struck a support tower that was part of the Bay
Bridge. The collusion caused the ship to lose 53,569 gallons of
fuel. This incident was the biggest incident to have ever occurred
in the San Francisco Bay area. Soon after the incident it was
discovered that the company that was responsible for the container
ship was Regal Stone Limited and Fleet Management Limited. In order
to restore damages to the city and also to help support the
wildlife that was also affected by the collusion the companies
settled to pay the San Francisco area approximately $44.4 million
dollars. This is a picture of the cargo ship after it spilled the
gallons of oil into the harbor.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is known as one of the worst
due to the millions of gallons that were able to escape on the
ocean floor. On April 20th, 2010 there was a massive explosion that
caused a huge oil cargo ship to sink in the middle of the Gulf of
Mexico,11 people were killed because of the accident and
approximately 3.3 million of gallons of oil were spilled into the
ocean. Soon after officials discovered that oil was spilling into
the ocean floor and unfortunately they were unable to cap the well
till 87 days later causing a major amount of damage. Soon after the
oil was contained and the officials were able to survey the amount
of damage government agencies and larger oil companies began to
invest their efforts into containing the problem. They helped in
protecting the beaches and putting out boons to protect ecosystems
near the contaminated area. The cargo ship, during the crisis that
occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.
III. The effects of the oilAs time has progressed no one has
been able to decipher how the ocean has progressed after the oil
was dumped into the waters. After the accident in the San Francisco
harbor the large company that was responsible for the damage payed
over $4 million dollars in order to help repair the damage both to
the structures and to the wildlife affected. Now in 2015, almost 8
years later the people have seen that the waters seem clear and
have established a new ecosystem but they cannot determine if it
will ever as it once was before the oil spill. The same outcome has
occurred in the Gulf of Mexico after the tragic incident that
involved an explosion, the death of 11 individuals and the release
of 4.4 million gallons of oil into the ocean. Now five years after
the tragic incident the BP oil company, the company that was
responsible for cargo ship that was involved in the incident,
published a video that was meant to promote the way the waters have
cleared up and they have been dedicated to helping the surrounding
businesses that were affected by the accident and the ecosystems
that were damaged. Their most famous line was, They are dedicated
to helping those who were affected by the accident and to helping
American established a better living. The link to watch video
promoting the BP Company and the change they have established for
the Gulf of Mexico and Americas is down
below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=20&v=hoOfIR4Vk1oIn order
to really uncover the health of the ocean I uncovered different
internet sites that demonstrated some the life that has evolved
over time since the incidents. Some of the examples were related to
the birds that surrounded the harbor. Soon after the incident
occurred the officials tried to keep the wildlife away from the
contaminated areas but as seen in the picture above on the left
they were not always very successful. In the Gulf of Mexico the
pictures were a lot more graphic since the amount spilled was a lot
greater. For example, three years ago people began to believe that
the Gulf of Mexico had pasted some of the darkness that come over
the area since the oil spill had occurred but scientists were
unable to hold up that faade since they discovered that some of the
larger animals in the sea were still dying from oil contamination.
Some of these animals were dolphins as seen in the picture to the
right scientists were seeing them die in large numbers and they
were all due to oil contamination that was still in the
water.Dolphin found on the beach from the waters of the Gulf of
Mexico.Bird that was found covered in oil in the waters near San
Francisco.
IV. Field TripsIn order to get a first look at some of the
animals that have been saved and to gain information of some of the
experts that had witnessed some of tragic outcomes caused by ocean
contamination of oil I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific located
in the Long Beach area. This aquarium is equipped a biodiverse
amount of animals and birds and houses a large world-wide Molina
Veterinary Hospital that helps to establish the health of all
recovering or sick animals and birds. I visited the aquarium and
discovered that a few of the Sea Otters had been survivors of oil
contaminations but had not been seriously contaminated. The
employee did go on to explain that it had been in his fur and if it
had reached any internal organs it could had been fatal for the
small otter. By making this field trip I was able to really
understand how fragile the small animals are how they are unaware
of the events that happen among them. The second place I visited in
order to gain more insight on how the marine life can be affected
by the oil I visited the Marine Mammal Care Center which is located
in the San Pedro area near the harbor. The site focuses on helping
on the health of Sea Lions in the Los Angeles Harbor and sometimes
they have several Sea Lions that arrive and have very bad systems
due to large amount of traffic that goes on in the Harbor. My visit
was not that successful since most of the Sea Lions that have been
housed in the center have never really been affected by oil but
some of the employees at the center were able to give me more
insight on the oil may have affected the seals if they had been
exposed to it. I was able to learn that for sea lions having any
oil exposure could be fatal since they enjoy to sun bathe and go
for long dives in the water, therefore they would not last very
long if they were covered in oil.The two field trips allowed me to
really see how effected the marine life was when the oil was
released into the water. The oil was able to wipe large amounts of
ecosystems and even after several years the large mammals were
still dying due to contamination since these large ecosystems were
wiped out in an instant. These ecosystems are barely beginning to
rebuild themselves today. For example the coral reefs that were
once in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico can never be recovered
because once they die it is very hard to help grow a new one. V.
The effects on the Human PopulationThe human population was also
greatly affected by the oil spills both in the San Francisco area
and the people around the Gulf of Mexico. In San Francisco business
near the water were losing customers because the public wanted to
stay away from the contaminated waters. The harbor was also
surrounded by large boons that prohibited the public to come close
to water under any circumstances but unfortunately this did not
prohibit the public from see the dead animals that were being
washed ashore. The Gulf of Mexico had a similar problem to the one
in the San Francisco Bay when it came to businesses the area that
had once been a tourists are that attracted many visitors became a
hazardous area that people began to avoid. The waters around the
shore were closed to the public but there were several events that
occurred that involved a person finding a dead or contaminated
animal that had washed ashore due to the large amount of oil in the
water. People who were not near the Gulf of Mexico were also
affected by the problem that was caused by the large oil spill. The
people owned a vehicle at the time. During the time of the accident
Gas prices rose to about $6 which angered many individuals that had
large vehicles that required gas more than once a week. If there
had been a person that was not informed of the incident they would
begin to discover the news because they were questioning the high
prices for gas. The high gas prices were due to large amount of
money that was lost due to the spill of oil determining the prices
that the public then needed to pay due to the loss.VI. ConclusionAs
I researched the topic a little more and discovered that a variety
of people have noticed that the life in the contaminated areas have
been restored I have also noticed that this is a subject that
cannot be taken as something of the past but to better help be
prepared to prevent accidents such as these in the future because
it can just as disastrous or worst. For example in a journal
article by Taylor and Francis it tells how people see this accident
as something that took place in the past but the article does give
a clear understanding of how the oil killed off many ecosystems and
though they are now becoming restored the crisis should be
something that helps prevent incidents like those in the future.Oil
comparing the oil spills that occurred in San Francisco and the one
that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico it helped me to understand how
fragile life is in the ocean and how small accidents can create
severe consequences. San Francisco was able to receive compete
compensation for the major damages that occurred in the water and
thought the oil did cause damage to the wildlife in the area they
had the necessary funds needed to help protect the birds and sea
life that were affected. On the other hand the Gulf of Mexico was a
larger area and it affected not only the sea life and the oceans it
also affected hundreds of people that lived near the waters. The
incident in the Gulf of Mexico is still trying to be resolved and
though the storm is over you can clearly still see the affects. Oil
spills are only one example of the large negative events that we
can cause to our environment if we do not take the necessary
precautions to prevent them from happening.
Works CitedAmadeo, Kimberly. "BP Gulf Oil Spill Economic
Effects." N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.Farrington,JW. "OIL
POLLUTION in the MARINE ENVIRONMENT II: Fates and Effects of Oil
Spills."Environment, 56.4 (2014): 16-31."Gulf Oil
Spill."Smithsonian Ocean Portal. Web. 15 Apr. 2015
"Spill Closes Bay Beaches as Oil Spreads, Kills
Wildlife."SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015."$44 Million Natural
Resource Damage Settlement to Restore San Francisco Bay After Cosco
Busan Oil Spill Response.restoration.noaa.gov.
"Response.restoration.noaa.gov. Web. 15 Apr. 2015