Oil Spill and Endangered Marine Life

Over the years, the amount of endangered animals have been rapidly increasing. Many natural disasters and man made events have traumatically effected the animals. A recent disaster occurred last year which was the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast of 2010. Animals such as dolphins, sea turtles, sea otters, crustaceans, fish, birds, and several more species suffered many deaths because of this toxic oil. The oil destroyed their habitat; their sources of food was destroyed and their homes. One of the species that were hit hardest by the oil spill were the brown pelicans. This is because they spend their time hovering above the ocean in search of food. They do not notice the oil since it appears to make the ocean calmer. This causes the birds to dive in those locations unknowingly.
The oil affects everything whether it was inhaled or ingested. Either way, the oil can cause brain damage, pneumonia, kidney damage, stress and eventually leading to death. Unfortunately right after the oil spill, many of the animals suffered from exhaustion and hyperthermia in the ocean. When oil is on the external part of the body, it does not allow the body to regulate itself. The temperatures of some birds were 100 degrees Fahrenheit and above. According to the New York Times, on August 16, 2010, “more than 7,000 birds, sea turtles and dolphins have been found dead or debilitated in the Gulf of Mexico since the oil spill began.” Since then there have been several more deaths from the oil spill. For those animals that were not visibly oiled who past way, the reasoning is that they most likely ate another fish for food that was affected by the toxins.
An example of the current leading way for future generation turtles to become affected by the oil spill is if the it is not cleaned up and through the eggs that the mother will lay. The baby turtles have a high chance of obtaining diseases easier and mutations. Today there are many agencies and organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency that help preserve not only the marine life, including all environmental problems.
Fishing is currently a controversial topic among fishermen and consumers. It is extremely important that people and other animals have fish to eat, unfortunately, animals such as the bottle nose dolphins have been captured in these nets and affected by the toxic oil. The most common killings for all marine life occur during the commercial trawling until the oil spill occurred. Last year, only a few lucky dolphins escaped the terrifying fishing nets, however, 13 bottle nose dolphins ended up suffering and then dying which is an exceedingly amount. It is important to manage the marine life because if animals are recklessly caught, this will inevitability will affect the entire food chain.
A consideration for a more sensible net that will allow other fish, but specifically dolphins and sea turtles to escape through a top-opening escape hatches rather than getting trapped at the bottom is in progress. Neil Loneragan from the Centre of Fish and Fisheries research at Murdoch University believes that the fisheries will not have enough funding which will cause delays in the trial hatching. Although, some states have required a shorter trawling time in order for the unnecessary fish will not drawn and suffer. “Professor Loneragon believes the actual number of dolphins becoming trapped in trawl nets could be one-and-a-half to two-times higher than the data being reported by skippers in the State of Fisheries report.” This is an important problem to discuss.
I believe that even though this project proposes to create new fishing nets, it will be highly priced and will definitely be worth the opportunity. The new fishing nets have the potential to save the dolphin, sea turtle and the other marine life populations. The affect of saving the fish will just benefit the food chain by having more resources. Norman Moore, the Fisheries Minister, states that “we are making sure that those few fisheries we have in the state are minimal damage to the environment.” It is fantastic that he wants to pursue this new idea. If more people get involved, we can make this change faster and without species dying due to the fishermen’s accidental catches.
By investing in the new fishing nets, fishermen will have an easier time because they would not have to deal with the unnecessary fish that they would potentially catch. The oil in the ocean will need to be cleaned more so the marine life will not diminish. It is important that these species do not become extinct. Whatever happens to a species, it will ultimately affect everything including humans.