oil spills

Oil spills have affected many people and many industries. They affect both the economy and the environment. Some of the things affected are:

• marine life
• local industries (often tourist industry)
• fishing industry

Effect on marine life

People immediately think of birds and fish as being species affected by an oil spill. On the news you will often see large numbers of dead birds and dead fish washed up on the beach. Some birds die because they have ingested oil. However, more commonly the birds drown because they stick to the oil and cannot get out of the water, starve because there's no food left for them because the fish have been poisoned by the oil or lose too much body heat because of damage to their plumage by the oil. Fish die of starvation because of loss of food or from being poisoned by the oil.

Some marine mammals and reptiles, such as dolphins, whales and turtles are very vulnerable to oil spills because they have to be able to surface to breathe and the reptiles also need to leave the water to breed. The layer of oil makes surfacing difficult and the animals drown.

Vegetation in the water can be vulnerable to light crude or light refined oil spills if the oil reaches the root area of the plants. However, a thick coating of oil on the leaves does almost no damage if it occurs outside the growing season. Loss of vegetation can lead to more animal deaths as they lose sources of food. Living coral is also vulnerable to oil slicks. If the living coral dies, then the reef of coral can be destroyed by wave erosion. This means many fish and animals lose their homes.

The time taken for these damaged populations to recover depends on many factors and is highly variable.

Effect on local industries

Oil, tarballs, dead fish and birds all get washed up on the shores and the oil slick inteferes in activities such as fishing, sailing, swimming, ... The local tourist industry suffers because tourists are not interested in coming to a coastal area where they cannot do the activities as listed above. Industries that rely on clean seawater for routine operations can also suffer because operations have to be stopped while the water is cleaned.

Effect on fishing industry

The fishing industry suffers badly when an oil spill occurs. Firstly because the fish are often covered in oil, or have swallowed oil making them poisonous. Also a large number of fish die, decreasing the number of fish that could have possibly been caught. It is also difficult for boats to sail because the oil can damage them and the devices they use to catch the fish. However there are usually no long-term effects because the normal over-production of fish eggs means there will be few losses.