Fears grow over oil spill’s long-term effects on food web
By Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, May 31, 2010 (IPS/IFEJ) – As oil continues gushing from the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, with no sign of stopping until a new well is finished this August, scientists, environmentalists and local residents are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife. Dead animals are already washing up on shores. Birds have been found dying in pools of oil and dispersant, which have taken over their marshland habitats. Several species in the Gulf of Mexico are already endangered, including the Kemp’s Ridley and Leatherback sea turtles, the Sperm Whale, and birds such as the Piping Plover and the Gulf Sturgeon, according to the Arizona-based Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD). As a result of the disaster, CBD has already petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add the Bluefin Tuna to the endangered species list. Assistant Professor Michael Blum of Tulane University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology warns that some species may be at risk of extinction. “There are… hundreds of shorebirds and marine mammals that are acutely sensitive to oil. You could potentially lose whole species, have extinction events. Brown pelicans were just taken off the endangered species list. On this threshold, a big dieback and mortality event, they would be pushed back into a situation where they could be endangered,” Blum said in an interview. “A lot of the species of most concern – sea turtles and dolphins – migrate, use our breeding grounds or they’re a very important feeding ground,” he explained. While there are no dolphin species whose populations exclusively migrate through the Gulf, Blum said those dolphins not impacted by the Gulf would be in such low numbers that they may not be able to reproduce at an adequate rate to avoid extinction. The EPA admits the impact of the oil spill – and the unprecedented use of toxic dispersants to break up the oil – on wildlife is unknown. “We’re still deeply concerned about the things we don’t know. The long-term effect on aquatic life is unknown,” EPA Secretary Lisa Jackson said in a conference call with reporters this week. … “Certainly when oil washes up against the shoreline you have immediate toxic effects on almost anything. If you’re a fish, you get oil on your gills and can’t breathe. If you’re a crab, same story. If you’re a plant, you get suffocated, it reduces photosynthesis,” he said. …
Has anyone thought about the effects on plankton and the production of oxygen? Were we not taught that plankton was at the beginning of the food chain also?