Oil Spills Affect Animals Have On The Environment

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons of petroleum are spilled in U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major spill could easily double that amount. Oil spills are one of the biggest and overall worst environmental disasters. These spills happen for many reasons. Some of these reasons include: people making mistakes or being careless, equipment breaking down, natural disasters such as hurricanes, deliberate acts by terrorists, countries at war, vandals, or illegal dumpers. Many animals are affected by these actions. The animals that are directly affected aren't the only ones that have problems, their offspring can be majorly affected as well. This is why some dolphin species are becoming endangered and even extinct. Also, even after things appear to be
Some of these animals include fish, shell and fin, whales, and dolphins. Most often, shellfish and finfish, either are unaffected by oil or are affected only for a couple of minutes because most oils float and so organisms living close to the floor are typically very limited to the interaction. However, these animals can be affected in some circumstances, especially when oil spills into shallow or confined waters. Whales are also greatly affected by oil spills in various ways. Whales get their insulation from blubber which cannot be fouled with oil, nonetheless they are impacted by oil spills when they eat prey that has become contaminated by the oil, by breathing in the toxic fumes, or by swimming through the spill. Lastly dolphins, these marine mammals have to surface to breathe, and if they come up through an oil slick, they can suck in the substance which then gets into their lungs, kind of like what happens to whales. Oil spills can also kill off smaller animals that the fish eat which affects what the dolphins eat. These are just three of the many thousands of animals that are affected by marine oil