Since the debut of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010 scientist have been steadily evaluating the effects of this
happening. Approximately 53,000 barrels were released into the oceans daily from
April 2010 to July 2010. Despite the fact that the oil was capped in July
effects from the spill are still seen in today’s ecosystems. Scientists believe
this has caused a detrimental effect on the ocean’s food chains from plants to
sea animals. Zooplankton is one of the most popular plants used to track the
prevalence of oil in the ocean. The oil left behind can be fingerprinted from
these very plants. The fingerprints discovered by scientist today show large
amount of oil even at very low sea levels. Levels of the oil found in our
oceans zooplankton vary greatly from area to area with no consistent pattern. Scientists
believe this is having a trickle effect into the different ecosystems that are
drastically affecting our food chains today. Studies continue to show gradual
increase in the amount of ecosystems that are contaminating our food chains and
believe that further contamination will continue to take place.
Ironically when then oil spill took place many
citizens were more concerned about financial stabilityand high gas prices more
so than their own wellbeing. Being that the oceans supply us with water into
our local city water plants you would imagine, we would first be concerned
about our healthy eating habits and our specific intake of sea animals like
shrimp, fish, lobsters, crab etc. Although this issue was brought to light through
info-mericials on rescuing our damaged sea life, we have lost sight of the fact
that sea life are still drastically affected by this spill and we are
continuing to take in foods that can be harmful to our well-being.
University
of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (2012, March 20). Oil from
Deepwater Horizon disaster entered food chain in the Gulf of Mexico. ScienceDaily.
Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2012/03/120320142100.htm
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