Oil Spills Effects On Animals

Think of the number 1.3 million. That how many gallons of oil is spilled in the ocean each year. Because of all that oil in the ocean, animals and humans are being affected. People like exploring the oceans, going swimming, and fishing, but with all the oil in the water, we may not be able to soon. Oil spills cause many different issues to animals, food chains, and people. We need to help prevent oil spills.

Oil spills have many effects on all kinds of animals. Oil destroys important features on animals. The NOAA states, “Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water repellency of a bird 's feathers, thus exposing these creatures to the harsh elements,” (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov). Animals

Oil can alter entire food webs. Jenna Bardoff says that, “If phytoplankton are poisoned by oil, those who eat poisoned phytoplankton will also be harmed, and so will the animal that consumes the animal that ate the phytoplankton,” (http://www.onegreenplanet.org). When an animal lower in the food chain is in contact with oil, all the animals that eat it will be poisoned, and so on. Consequently, when this happens animals’ populations are changing. Because of oil, predator populations are decreasing and prey populations are increasing. Springer considers that predators’ populations are decreasing because of oil poisoning, therefore prey populations are rising (https://phy.org). If predators are all dying from oil, their prey will not have anything to eat them, causing their populations to increase. Biomagnification can also cause those issues. Biomagnification (where an animal eats another animal with oil in/on it and then the oil basically gets more dangerous inside the animal) is also messing up food chains when an animals eats something like a fish. Bardoff also declared, “Oil can be easily absorbed by a fish’s fatty tissues, causing biomagnification of the pollutant to the next predator,” (http://www.onegreenplanet.org). For example, if a seal eats a fish, the seal will be poisoned from the oil worse than the fish was. In addition to animals being harmed, people can also be harmed, but

You could reduce the amount of fossil fuels you use. Hearts states that if you reduce your fossil fuels and use more energy efficient things, than we would use less oil, therefore causing less oil spills to happen (http://www.hearts.com). If you don’t want to do this, you could still help another way. You could also join a group that helps clean oil spills and also support keeping our water clean. The same source also states that there are many different clubs and groups you can join that protest and clean up oil spills (http://www.hearts.com). And if you didn’t want to join one, you could always just help out and volunteer. Those are just a few ways you can help stop oil