The BP oil spill dumped a reported 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In all, 16,000 miles of coastline across Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi were impacted. Not surprisingly, five years later the Gulf has yet to recover and a new report from the National Wildlife Federation found that 20 species of animals are still suffering in the aftermath.

While the oil giant claims that the Gulf has returned to normal after the BP oil spill, a new report disputes their claims. In fact, a range of animal species including dolphins, sea turtles, brown pelicans, white pelicans, mahi mahi, Gulf killifish, bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, spotted sea trout, and sperm whales are still feeling the repercussions.

“Given the significant quantity of oil remaining on the floor of the Gulf and the unprecedented large-scale use of dispersal during the spill, it will be years or even decades before the full impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is known,” the report said. “It is clear that robust scientific monitoring of the Gulf ecosystem and its wildlife populations must continue — and that restoration of degraded ecosystems should begin as soon as possible.”

The report found that 12 percent of brown pelicans along with 32 percent of laughing gulls are gone. According to the report, “oil and dispersant compounds have been found in the eggs of white pelicans nesting in three states— Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.”

Not to mention, the mysterious and continuing deaths of bottlenose dolphins that have also been linked to the spill. Between 27,000 and 65,000 sea turtles are thought to have died as a result of the spill and today their nests are still less prevalent in the Gulf.

Additionally, commercial crabbers in multiple locations have reported losses in the blue crab populations. The populations were about 20 percent lower between 2010 and 2014 than they were a decade ago. And of the populations that do survive, there have been reports of lesions and deformities on blue crabs and other crustaceans because the crabs are sensitive to even low levels of oil and dispersants found in the Gulf.

At the same time, BP is currently arguing in court that additional fines over $2.7 billion would put their business at risk. Its also said that the Gulf has returned to “baseline conditions.” But this seems unlikely to be true considering that scientists recently discovered a “1,235 bathtub ring of oil” on the ocean floor. What’s more, oil dispersants used to clean up the spill could be carcinogenic to humans and animals alike.

While the spill was nearly five years ago, it’s likely that the Gulf will continue to feel the repercussions even decades into the future. Especially considering the large swath of ecosystem impacted by the massive amounts of poisonous oil found in the Gulf.

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Image of  a sad sea turtle on the shore from Shuttershock

The post 5 Years After the BP Oil Spill, 20 Species Still Suffering appeared first on EcoSalon.

We wake up in Mobile, Alabama, early, and head for Houma, Louisiana. We’ve arranged to get on a BP-sponsored helicopter flight over the Louisiana bayou and head offshore some 60 miles to the site where this whole thing started, where many oilmen died in an explosion. I’m with an activist from the Audubon Society and we’re driving well over 90 to get there on time. With us will be two NOAA scientists, one a biologist, one a geophysicist/oceanographer.

BP runs these sorties for media and has been for several months. The helicopter has 15 seats. I’m excited, not because I get to ride in a helicopter, but because I get nearly three hours to drill the BP guy and the scientists. Already seated are reporters from several major outlets, one, an NPR journalist trying to get good audio in a helicopter. Every time I ask a question, she turns her mic on. I’m doing her job for her.

Taking off, I ask the BP guy about the flight plan for our route. He doesn’t understand what I mean. Who chose it? I’m wondering if we’re seeing what’s really out here or if we’re seeing what they want us to see. He remarks that the journos choose the route, but what he means is they choose the destination. How we get there is up to BP and we’re not flying as the crow does. This is theater.

I take pictures of the wetlands, boom, slick, and some oiled beaches. The NOAA scientists champion the fact that of 77,000 miles of shoreline, only 600 are affected by oil. I don’t know what to do with this statistic. It sounds like an impressive ratio; then again, 600 miles is the entire collective coastline of Oregon and Washington State.

To get an accurate picture of this place you’d need to fly the same route every few days to see what is changing, not what it looks like in one isolated moment. Nonetheless, the photogs start clicking away whenever we come across “incriminating” pictures. But no one is asking questions and it’s driving me absolutely insane. How on earth can any good reporter pass up an opportunity like this?

I strategically place myself next to the BP employee and the scientists. I have a list and I’m going to get answers. The NOAA folks are cooperative, at times emotional. The BP employee is as cool as a cucumber; moreover, he doesn’t seem to know much. Every time I ask him a question he says, “I have all that information back on land, I’ll get back to you on that.”

Dispersants – this is what I want to know about. Specifically Corexit 9500 and 9527 (the ones used). This stuff is toxic as hell if it comes into acute contact with an animal. The effects of chronic, or low-level exposure aren’t known and that’s at the root of the fear that permeates the fishing community.

I talk to John Whitney, a NOAA Oceanographer who worked on the Exxon Valdez disaster. He gives me a crash chemistry lesson. Corexit is an extremely volatile compound. What this means is that it biodegrades very quickly – it has a half life of three to four days, which means after a few weeks it’s entirely gone, reduced to water and carbon dioxide. There are other volatile compounds produced in the degradation process, but no one can name one other than benzine. But it’s the middle of August now. If BP quit using dispersants on July 15th as they say they did, then it’s gone.

Entirely.

The dispersed oil remains, however, and the toxic poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) will persist, and not only on the surface.  They’re stratified in the water column. PAHs are bad. Real bad. Having them dispersed isn’t a good thing either, especially when you have plumes from the surface leading way, way down. Dispersed means more surface area and more surface area means more biomass comes into contact with it. But NOAA is very rosy (like a dozen, red) on this subject, citing their report that states 75% of the oil is gone – dissolved and gobbled up by microbes. Dissolved? I wouldn’t drink it.

They show me charts reflecting findings that the toxicity isn’t anything to worry about. But only two days prior to this, I was in D’iberville, Mississippi, looking at Flipcam footage shot by fisherman showing beyond a shadow of doubt that oil plume persists in Mississippi Sound. I only get them on the record saying that it’s all “mostly” gone or in such low concentrations that it doesn’t matter. It matters, all right.

Editor’s note: Travel editor Stiv Wilson is reporting exclusively from the Gulf of Mexico this month. Read all of his dispatches here.

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