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Atlantic Ocean Oil Spills Essay

538 Words3 Pages

Oil Spills in the Atlantic Ocean
By: Ethan McLean

Oil spills are a huge problem affecting aquatic ecosystems all around the world. These oil spills are having a negative impact on many different living organisms in these ecosystems. This has been a big problem everywhere, but especially in the Atlantic Ocean. Many of these major oil spills have happened in the Atlantic Ocean and not a lot has been done to prevent these disasters. Oil spills can happen in a number of different ways. Oil spills can happen from two tankers colliding, a pipe bursting, or any time during the process of removing oil from the ground, whether it’s through drilling, refining, storing or transporting.

Almost every year about 210 million gallons of oil end up in a body of water! That is a lot of oil! These spills end up killing fish, mammals, birds and many other animals near the spill. A spill can also kill aquatic plants as well as plants on the shore. If these plants are killed, there will be less food for species that consume them, and the population will die off. Then, the higher trophic level animals will not have as many of those species to eat. If this happens, …show more content…

The most popular oil removal method is skimming vessels, which remove oil off of the surface of the water. However, this method is very expensive, costing oil company’s millions of dollars to remove the oil. Another approach is burning the oil off of the surface of the water, but this produces a smoke that is harmful to all organisms including humans. A new method is being produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This solution allows the oil to be sucked off of the water like a magnet. When oil is mixed with a water repellent nanoparticle that contains a lot of iron, the oil can be magnetically removed from the water. After, the nanoparticles can be removed and the oil can be used again without going to

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