The Gulf Oil Spill The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is also known as Gulf of Mexico oil spill which occurred on April 20, 2010, the uncontrolled blowout of the Macondo wellhead, located at Mississippi Canyon Block, during the completion of drilling by the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drilling platform. This incident Killed 11 workers and injured many. It was undoubtedly the largest environmental disaster ever experienced in the history of the United States and the largest marine oil discharge. As the US government estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil was exposed to the nation’s largest and most productive wetland. This had affected thousands of square miles, with oil and tar reaching the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. There was a large-scale contamination in the Gulf of Mexico with oil, including deep-ocean communities and over 1,600 kilometers of shoreline. Many species of tidal, pelagic and estuarine organisms, marine mammals, sea turtles and birds were affected, and over 20 million hectares of the Gulf of Mexico were closed for fishing activities. …show more content…
The report showed the impact specific to Louisiana mainland salt marshes dominated by Spartina alterniflora documented by CWV component of DWH NRDA. The primary marsh types affected were salt marshes dominated by Juncus roemerianus, mangroves and Spartina alterniflora dominated by the black mangrove (Avicennia germinans), which were located on small islands and shorelines and as scattered stands within salt marshes and low- to intermediate-salinity marshes, dominated by Phragmites Australis, the common reed, along the margin of the Mississippi River Bird foot