In 2010, BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf Of Mexico, one of the biggest oil spills in the history, in which 4.2 million barrels of oil was cleaned up using bioremediation and by the use of chemical dispersants.In the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the slick covered 25,000 square miles. Billions of hydrocarbon-chewing microbes known as Alcanivorax borkumensis. These microbes ate up a lot of hydrocarbon molecules in the natural gas. Chemical dispersants were used to increase the surface area of the oil, the bacteria would break down and absorb both chemical dispersants and hydrocarbons. Initially, shrimp boats were used to collect oil, that wasn’t very effective. Then trawlers were used to pull oil away from the site, where it could …show more content…
In the initial phases of the oil spill, a heat-proof boom was placed around the area covering the oil. The boom enclosing the oil was pulled by two ships away from the site, where the oil was burned. Mechanical cleanup consisted of using a boom and using skimmers. A skimmer is a device which collects and removes oil from the surface of the water body. Dispersants were used but weren't really effective in cleaning up the oil, hence weren't used thereafter. 42 million litres of crude oil covered 1,990km of shoreline. It immediately affected the marine life, this included 2,000 sea otters, 302 harbor seals, and about 25,000 seabirds. These all creatures died within days of the oil spill. After the oil spill, additional animal deaths were caused. Salmon had an increased mortality rate for 4 years as oil had come in contact with incubating eggs. Larger animals were affected because their prey was contaminated, hence caused them illness and also death. Small fishes and marine animals died as they usually fed upon the planktonsand which were