The Effects of Oil Spills and Methods to Subvert Them
Oil spills have significant short and long-term consequences for marine habitats; however, they can be overcome in a variety of ways: one way is to simply stop the leak and let natural microbes degrade the oil over time; another way (closely related to the first) is to use absorbents on the oil, rather than detergents, and let bio-remediation take its course. This will allow such spills to be minimized in terms of damage. Oil spills cause physical smothering of marine species; spills cause reproductive damage; spills cause physical damage; spills can cause long-term destruction of species; and some species can recover in ways other species cannot and, therefore, some species replace other ones in the local hierarchy when there is a spill. The following paper will discuss the short and long term impact and then proceed to look at two ways of overcoming the problem.
The short term impact of an oil spill is that it leads to the physical smothering of creatures that happen to be in the marine environment – presumably because oil smothers gills and acts as a thick coat cast over plant life (Stewart, 2005). The literature does not delve in great detail vis-á-vis the precise manner in which an oil spill smothers creatures in the water. However, it appears as though the oil clogs gills, discourages