The oil leak triggered by a deadly rig blast off the coast of Louisiana has the potential to cause more environmental damage than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, one of the largest ecological disasters ever recorded, some observers say. The oil well was ripped open by an April 20 explosion that sunk the drill rig Deepwater Horizon, leading to the presumed deaths of 11 men."As it is now, it's already looking like this could be the worst oil spill since the Valdez," John Hocevar, Oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, said on
Thursday."It’s quite possible this will end up being worse than the Valdez in terms of environmental impact since it seems that BP will be unable to cap the spill for months. In terms of total quantity of oil released, it seems this will probably fall short of Exxon Valdez. But because of the habitat, the environmental impact will be worse." Hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, are threatened, environmental organizations said.
The oil slick threatens hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.
If the leak is not capped, millions of gallons of oil could spill into the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental impact could be disastrous if the oil
reaches the ecologically fragile U.S. coastline.The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.
Wednesday night, the Coast Guard and NOAA raised their estimate of the amount of oil the damaged well was pouring into the Gulf to 210,000 gallons a day -- about 5,000 barrels.
An effort to burn off part of the oil slick on Wednesday destroyed about
100 barrels, said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP. But the technique "clearly worked," and larger burns are planned when weather conditions make them possible."We believe we can now scale that up and burn between 500 and 1,000 barrels at a time," Suttles said. They had to abandon burning the oil when weather conditions changed and the wind blew in the wrong direction for them. There will, they noted, be more chances to burn the oil.
The well is now leaking from three points, BP said. Under the 1990 oil pollution act, passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the company is required to foot the bill for the cleanup.
Coast Guard Update Oil Spill Update
A 120 mile oil spill spread out of control and started washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes. The shrimp were allowed to be retrieved in an emergency shrimping season which was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used 
to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.Oil company BP, whose ruptured well is at the heart of the spill, and state and federal agencies have strung nearly 175,000 feet -- about 33 miles -- of floating booms around the leading edge of the shoreline in an effort to contain the spill, but authorities said the spill could begin affecting some areas of the coast by Thursday evening. About a half-million more feet of floating booms are being readied, federal officials said. But the latest
forecast from NOAA showed the leading edges of the slick reaching the Mississippi and Alabama coasts over the weekend and stretching as far east as Pensacola, Florida, by Monday.Efforts to shut down the well have failed so far, and more complicated plans may take weeks.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday declared a state of emergency ahead of the oil slick's arrival, warning it covered as much as 600 square miles of water.
Oil spill could be disaster for wildlife
Ten wildlife refuges in Mississippi and Louisiana are in the oil's likely path, with the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area at the tip of the Mississippi River likely to be the first affected, Jindal announced. Wildlife conservation groups said Thursday the oil could be a disaster for coastal areas of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and Florida."For birds, the timing could not be worse; they are breeding, nesting and especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore," said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative.
"The efforts to stop the oil before it reaches shore are heroic, but may not be enough. We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds.""The best case is, the wind shifts and the oil doesn't hit," said Tom MacKenzie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I'm not real confident about that. ... We're doing everything we can to prevent it, but it could be a bad one."
It's not just birds that could be affected, although they are
usually the first to feel the effects, said Gregory Bossart, chief veterinary officer for the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The birds are right at the surface, get covered in the oil and swallow it, causing liver and kidney problems. "They need to be rescued and cleaned," he said.But the coastline of Louisiana, with its barrier islands and
estuaries, "is a very unique ecosystem. It's very complex," Bossart said.Plankton found in the estuaries nourish organisms all the way up the food chain. Crabs, mussels, oysters and shrimp feed on the plankton, he said. Oil smothers the plankton, resulting in them not being able to eat. Also, "the estuaries here are a nursery ground, literally a nursery ground, for the entire fish population in this area," Bossart said.
River otters in the region eat mussels and other animals. And "we know, in this area right now, that there are sperm whales.
There are dolphins right in the oil slick," he said.If an oil spill is small enough, animals can leave the area. "Some of them can get away," Bossart said. "It's totally dependent on the size of the slick, and this is huge."
Exposure to the oil for a prolonged period of time can result in a toxic effect on the skin, and mammals can suffer lung damage
or death after breathing it in, Bossart said. "When the oil starts to settle, it'll smother the oyster beds. It'll kill the oysters," he said.Greenpeace's Hocevar said he's particularly concerned about the impact to critically endangered bluefin tuna. "It's their spawning season and bluefin larvae in this part of their life-cycle would be near the surface of water," Hocevar said.
The oil could also harm sea turtles, which are approaching nesting season; fin whales; menhaden, a fish species harvested mostly for fish meal and fish oil; bottom-feeding oysters; and numerous species of birds, Hocevar said.
The spill also threatens the Louisiana and Mississippi fishing industry, as crab, oysters and shrimp along the coast could be
affected, along with numerous species of fish. Gulf shrimp are in their spawning season. Experts said the spill could also destroy the livelihood of commercial fishermen and shrimp catchers and impact recreational fishermen. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the state’s fishing industry is worth $265 billion at dockside and has a total economic impact of $2.3 trillion.Fisherman's Livelihood Threatened by Oil Spill
The Louisiana coastline is mostly marsh, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries is worried that the lowlands will catch and hold oil when the water washes into them, spokesman Bo Boehringer said. The department is advising response teams on where to place the booms to protect wildlife. That includes brown pelicans, Louisiana's state bird, and migratory birds.
Top Ten Categories of wildlife that will be most affected
Though it's unclear how badly wildlife along the Gulf Coast will suffer, the timing of the spill couldn't be worse. This is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in set breeding areas during this time and there's less instinct to move away from danger.
Disturbances to nests, fish spawning grounds or key links in the food chain might have lasting effects on species already at risk, commercial fish stocks and the people who make a living harvesting them. Minor oil spills are relatively common on the Gulf Coast, but this one has biologists, wildlife agencies, conservation groups and fishermen particularly concerned.
Here's a selection of animals at risk in the open water, along the coasts and in the wetlands.
1. North Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: The Great Bluefin Tuna, prized for sushi and sashimi, is one of the species most in danger of slipping into extinction. Traveling down across the Atlantic seaboard, bluefin tuna spawn in the Gulf of Mexico between mid-April and mid-June.2. Sea Turtles: Five of the world's seven sea turtle species
live, migrate and breed in the Gulf region. Kemp's ridley is the world's most endangered species of sea turtle, and one of its two primary migration routes runs south of Mississippi. Loggerhead turtles, also endangered, feed in the warm waters in the Gulf between May and October.3. Sharks: Shark species worldwide are in decline. The grassbeds
south of the Chandeleur Islands are very close to the oil spill. These grasses are a known nursing area for a number of shark species, which are now beginning their spawning season in the Gulf. Whale sharks, the world's largest fish, feed on plankton at the surface of the water and could also be affected.4. Marine mammals (whales, porpoises, dolphins): Oil spills pose
an immediate threat to marine mammals, which need to surface and breathe. Not only does the oil pose a threat, but also the nasty toxins that the oil kicks off into the air. A resident pod of sperm whales in the spill area could be at risk along with piggy sperm whales, porpoises and dolphins.5. Brown Pelicans: The state bird of Louisiana, the pelican
nests on barrier islands and feeds near shore. Brown pelicans only came off the endangered species list last year, but they've had a rough time in past seasons with storms. Their reproductive rates are low. Breeding season just started, and with eggs incubating the oil could pose a significant threat.6. Oysters - The coastal waters around the very tip of
Louisiana’s boot-shaped coast are home to some of the most productive oyster farms in the country. Oils and hydrocarbons are toxic to oysters. Unfortunately, hydrocarbons can persist in coastal sediments for months or even years. Louisiana oyster farmers, many of whom barely scrape by with high fuel costs and global competition, could have trouble weathering the oil spill if their harvests are affected.7. Shrimp and blue crab - Coastal marshes are key to the life
cycle and development of Louisiana shrimp and blue crab — both staples of the local seafood industry. Inshore shrimp season will open in mid-May, while brown shrimp are in their post-larval and juvenile development stages.8. Menhaden and marsh-dwelling fish. - The young offspring of
species such as mullet, menhaden and marsh-dwelling forage fishes are especially vulnerable at this time of year. Menhaden is a little fish you've probably never heard of, but people all over the world use it everyday. Menhaden fish oil and meat are used in everything from cosmetics to animal feed. Louisiana is one of the world’s biggest suppliers and the oil spill comes smack in the middle of menhaden spawning season.9. Beach-nesting and migratory shorebirds - Overdeveloped
beach fronts all along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida have made life difficult for several species of plovers, sandpipers, terns and oyster catchers. Those that build their nests on the ground and feed on invertebrates are susceptible to oil on the beaches. Some migratory shore birds fly nearly the length of the Western Hemisphere and use barrier islands in the Gulf for key resting and refueling spots on their journey.10. Migratory songbirds — warblers, orioles, buntings,
flycatchers, swallows and others - About 96 species of neo-tropical songbirds make a 500-mile journey without a pit stop across the Gulf of Mexico. The next two weeks mark the height of their migration as they travel north from Central and South America to breed in North America. The smoke from controlled burns to mitigate the oil spill could affect the migration, but the impacts will be difficult to monitor.More than 400 species are threatened by the spill, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Thursday, citing the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
"When you stop and begin considering everything that this could impact, it really is stunning," Karen Foote, biologist administrator with the department, told the newspaper.
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MSNBC, "Gulf spill: Worse than Exxon Valdez?", accessed April 29, 2010
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