Sargassum Mats Bp Oil Spill

That sargassum and all the creatures living in its leaves are particularly vulnerable to oil on the.

Sargassum mats bp oil spill.

On april 20 2010 the bp oil company s macondo well blew out in mile deep water in the gulf of mexico causing the deepwater horizon drill rig to explode killing 11 workers injuring 17 others. As the sargassum drifts with the wind and currents so does the oil. Large scale oil spill incidents have included an april 2017 spill at pointe à pierre trinidad and tobago and a july 2017 oil spill in kingston harbor jamaica. Gulf oil spill threatens sargassum a vital floating habitat with video photo gallery.

A school of 3 pound mahi mahi shot from beneath the floating mat as they chased a swarm of sardines. Some of the oil sunk to the ocean floor preventing it from washing ashore. Illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste by ships operating in the region. More like a catastrophe.

After the bp spill in the gulf of mexico however the crews also pumped dispersants 5 000 feet below the ocean surface. Sargassum mats are feeding grounds for larger marine species including sea turtles. In recent years the caribbean region has faced challenges from oil spills and an influx of floating sargassum seaweed. Alabama scientists investigated oil spill effects on floating sargassum a critical seaweed habitat for many important gulf species.

As the ocean currents brought the spill into contact with sargassum oil would coat those same snarled branches and bladders of the seaweed. They observed disappearance during and after the deepwater horizon spill and then conducted mesocosm experiments with louisiana sweet crude oil and corexit 9500 dispersant to test the fate of oiled sargassum they found that oil accumulated on the seaweed. Mark dodd a wildlife biologist from georgia s department of natural resources surveying oiled sargassum seaweed in the gulf of mexico after the deepwater horizon oil spill in 2010. Spilled oil carried by currents can also end up swirling among the seaweed.

Bp oil disaster is not a spill. The interior and underside of these seaweed mats under normal conditions are wonderlands of life as every offshore fisherman knows. Floating mats of seaweed called sargassum provide key habitats for babies of many species now hopelessly contaminated.