Oil Spill Effects

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The topic I chose to write about is the effects of an oil spill on an environment and ecosystems. When this event occurs it is very devastating and it impacts entire ecosystems of the affected areas. Oil spills are very dangerous and can wipe out species from the areas it affects, large numbers of wildlife like fish, seals, whales, plankton, crabs, and birds are killed during this event. The entire ecosystem is change forever and it will never go back to the same. Oils spills can cover up large areas of land with black tar that is very difficult to clean up; if this happens out at sea the tar stretches into a thin slick that stretches out for miles until it hits land. Many wildlife species have been wiped out because of oil spills in the past. There have been many documented oil spills in the United States like the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the Exxon Valdez supper tanker in 1989 in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. These disasters affect areas for many decades and can sometimes completely destroy habitats and interrupt breeding of the marine life and animals that occupy these areas. They say that “oil and water don’t mix” and that statement is true. When oil and water mixes it takes on different forms depending on the amount of oil and water mixed. The oil and water mixes into large blobs of oil, which forms at the top of the water and gradually spread into a thin sheen that spreads out into the ocean. After some time the oil slick eventually breaks down even more until it ends up at the bottom of the ocean floor. Oil can sometimes take decades to naturally break down especially at the bottom of the ocean floor. The most difficult oil spills are the ones that happen out in the ocean from underwater pipelines. The recent oil spill in 2010 by BP in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest ever recorded, it was 50 miles south east of the

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