Oil Spills Is A Huge Source Of Ocean Pollution

The increase in pollution over the past century is of little surprise to many. Mankind has made great strides in such a short time, however, with these great strides, there are consequences. With the advancement of technology and the ability to harvest different sources of energies, there has been a rise in the amount of wastes and pollution. Actions that most people don’t even consider, such as driving their car and using fertilizers are mundane actions that may not seem like much, but they too, contribute to pollution. Eventually, many types of pollution and waste make their way to the ocean. Therefore, pollution has a significant impact on the ocean and marine life.

An oil spill incident or accident, broadly affects nature and crushes the environment around us as well as living beings and life form in the sea. Amid oil slicks, smooth, thick liquid is shaped and advances on the ocean. The Deepwater Horizon spill will undoubtable keep on changing earth for quite a while, more than already suspected. This essay will be broken up into three parts, were it will attempt to explain the influence of Crude oil on the environment, more specifically prokaryotes and eukarryotes Thunnus thynnus.

Bioremediation is the process in which microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts, molds, and filamentous fungi are introduced into the spills. The introduction of these microorganisms assists in altering and metabolizing various chemical compounds present in oil. When the microorganisms metabolize these certain compounds it significantly reduces the time it takes for the oil biodegradation to occur.

Oil spill pollution, a severe environmental problem which arouses in a marine environment or in the water bodies, has grown into an alarming scale with the increase in oil production and transportation. Causes are either accidental or due to operational failure. Henceforth, it is almost impossible for marine life not to be a victim of this vulnerable zone. Our planet has the largest oil reserves, occasionally it cracks and rarely causes a major accident. However, human interference causes a devastating damage to marine and ecosystem.

Bioremediation is the use of bacteria, fungi, some types of transformed bacteria, and other microbes in the decomposition of garbage and breaking down of petroleum products. An example of where a transformed bacteria was used to reduce pollution is seen when scientists broke down naphthalene, an environmental pollutant found in soils that are artificially created, by using genetically altered pseudomonas fluorescents. This bacteria is stimulated to uptake the gene for fluorescence so that when it breaks down the naphthalene it produces light. The light produced depends on the amount of chemical the bacteria breaks down, allowing scientists to monitor the efficiency of the process. The Exon-Valdez oil spill is a famous example that involves the use of transformed bacteria that was genetically engineered to breakdown hydrocarbons in

Offshore oil drilling is a controversial topic because when oil spills, it does extensive amounts of damage to the environment. Countries capable of mining oil in the ocean reap the economic benefits in addition to reducing their dependency on external oil. While it is uncontroversial that offshore drilling is a massive boon for those countries, the environmental consequences of a spill also affect the economic welfare of nearby residents. Oil contaminates animals through a process called biomagnification, where chemicals progressively become more detrimental to the animals the higher they are on the food chain. When oil spills into the ocean, it impairs the growth of native species and deteriorates the ecosystem. As a result, the livelihood of people in the tourist industry, fisherman, and shrimpers is crippled and may take decades to recover.

In 2010, an oil spill, now called the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred at the Gulf of Mexico. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil was dumped into the ocean. The oil exposed to the marine life’s environment caused many of the marine life to become sick. Many of the birds would ingest oil while they tried to clean the oil off of their feathers and would cause them to have lung disorders. According to scientist, up to 800,000 thousand birds and 300,000 turtles died as a result. I am here to today to raise awareness on this issue and inspire others to help protect our oceans. I hope that one day, we can restore our oceans to the clean and pure ocean it once was.

In this paper I will be discussing the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on microbes in different locations of the Gulf Coast. A study done by Lamendella et al. (2012) investigated the effect of the oil on samples of microbes collected from a beach that was heavily impacted by the spill. Another investigation took a look at microbes on surface sediment samples from 64 different sites (Mason et al., 2014). A third study researched the past, present, and possible future responses of microbial communities, and how they have evolved to adapt to oil that was failed to be removed (Kimes et al., 2014).

Throughout history, humans have had many adverse effects on the ocean. However, in the past century, a new threat to the ocean has arisen. Oils spills are one of the most dangerous human effects on the ocean, partly because they’re so difficult to reverse after they’ve happened, and because many of the chemicals that get released into the water are extremely toxic to a lot of creatures. Oil spills are usually caused by two ships colliding with each other, a ship colliding with another object, or as in the case of the BP oil spill, an explosion.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been recognized as the one of the worst environmental disasters, if not the worst, in U.S. history. On April 20, 2010, an offshore oil rig leased by British Petroleum’s (BP) in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in a ball of flames on, killing 11 employees. While much of the nation was riveted by the attempts to cap the mile-deep well, the hidden tragedy was the cloud of tens of millions of barrels oil that was slowly creeping toward land. BP and others would work for over a year to clean up the beaches and wetlands affected by the spilled oil. The impact of this was felt by costal wildlife and those who made their business working in the Gulf and along the shore.

2005). It’s a sticky substance, when it gets on something it acts like a glue. With such a massive concentration of oil, which was about 11 million gallons of oil, it had a huge effect on marine life and plants. Oil has herbicides, which are chemicals that kill plants and when they’re exposed to such a huge amount of it, it can affect a big area of plants on the shoreline and underwater. Oil has lower density than water, it will float when it’s mixed with it. It blocks sunlight and air from reaching the underwater pants. It does not allow plants to photosynthesize. Without photosynthesis, plants aren’t able grow or get oxygen so they will end up dying (Effect of oil spills on aquatic plants 2014). Oil affects the way most marine animals breathe and grow and can leave a sub lethal effect on them without killing them (How does oil impact marine life? 2014). Such a chemical like oil affects the way on how birds and marine life do in cold water like keeping a certain temperature. The study of chemical risks, or toxicology shows that without this ability to maintain a certain temperature they will die from hyperthermia. Oil is like a poison to marine life, and if it doesn’t kill the animal it leaves long lasting effects on them. With the huge dose most of these animals took of the oil, it led to a lot of deaths. This oil spill showed a lot of persistence because even after 30 years, the water was still contaminated with

Bioremediation was a major approach in removing the oil following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the spill most known for the considerable impact it had on the wildlife of Alaska and the extensive repair measures that followed. The world production of crude oil is more than three billion tons per year, and nearly half of this is transported by sea. Consequently, the international transport of petroleum by tankers is frequent. Bioremediation is the use of microbes, or naturally occurring organisms, to break down harmful pollutants. The bioremediation process was proven to be the most effective due to the microorganism’s ability to degrade the hydrocarbons found in oil. Microbes capable of degrading oil are primarily bacteria or fungi and basically

Undersea life there tends to grow slowly, so that subtle effects on reproduction may take time to become apparent. Submersibles in the area of the spill detected an enormous undersea plume of oil 3,600 to 4,300 feet deep and hundreds of miles long. Oxygen levels plummeted inside the plume, suggesting that ocean microbes were consuming the components of the oil. These oil-eating microbes occur naturally in the gulf and as much as 3,000 barrels of oil per day seep naturally from the ocean floor, making oil a part of the environment. Communities of tube worms have grown around the oil seeps, showing that some sea life has adapted to the oil. However, the oil remains poisonous to much undersea life, with deep corals being particularly vulnerable. Deep-sea animal life is adapted to a stable environment and is not suited to rapid changes of temperature and chemical composition. Microbes are more flexible, and are critical to the chemical balance of the atmosphere, consuming carbon dioxide, methane, propane, and heavy oil components (Harvard Gazette). These microbes are distributed widely in the gulf and can reproduce rapidly when they come into contact with oil.

The oceans face many types of pollution every day, every second. The ocean is our greatest ecosystem and out most valuable resource. A common misconception is that the rainforests are the lungs of the planet however, the majority of our oxygen is made via the algae in the sea. The oceans feeds, hydrates, and provides us with oxygen; ironically enough, despite its monetary value to mankind, it is what is treated the worst. For ages we have been dumping our trash, chemicals, and waste into the oceans with no fear or regret, almost an “out of sight- out of mind” mentality. People once and still assume that the oceans are so vast that all of the pollution is diluted and would be dispersed through out, going unnoticed. However, dilution is a myth and an idea that renders ocean dumping to be less impactful. Even so much of the man made pollution is becoming even more concentrated and have entered our natural food chain. However vast the waters of the ocean are, they are not meant to house all of these external factors. There are many alternatives to marine pollution including recycling, finding alternative trash dump sites, cutting down on harmful chemicals for agriculture, and most importantly having the ability to recognize when a problem is developing and counter act, immediately.

Ocean pollution is one of the most urgent issues in our world today. The ocean is crucial to our ecosystem and it is being severely damaged at an alarmingly increasing rate. In this paper I will educate about the role the ocean plays in our beautiful Earth, why it is being so widely ignored and dismissed, the causes of pollution, and its effects on animals and humans alike.