“Stop the Drilling, Stop the Oil”

By Nicole Cruz

Since I was 6 years old I dreamed of working with marine mammals and preserving the ocean waters. Now I’m in college and working toward a degree in marine sciences and during my summers I’m an animal care volunteer at the NY Aquarium.  My drive and ambition to helping the ocean wonders hasn’t dwindled since my early childhood years and I don’t think it ever will. If anything growing up in Brooklyn NY and living by the water, has made motivation stronger.

When I think of ocean pollution, my first thought is always oil spills. There is constant dredging of oil and oil spills happening all over country. Ever hear of a show named Saved by the Bell? I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you have. Well in one episode of season 3, aptly named Pipe Dreams, oil is discovered on the school grounds of Bayside High. While the episode itself advocates a pro- environmental message, I bring it up because the animals in the pond were affected by the oil spill that happened. I remember watching this and feeling so saddened by the death of Becky the duck. It was disgusting to see the duck covered in oil and knowing later on that oil spills are a very common accident. Now think of this oil spill happening in a larger body of water, like rivers, lakes, oceans, etc.

Being an animal care volunteer, I’ve worked with many marine mammals. I’ve fed walruses, been hugged by sea lions, and had a sea otter press his nose against my hand. There’s been other interactions but I won’t bore you with the details. The reason I’m bringing this up is because when oil spills occur, marine life, especially animals are affected. By now we’ve all seen the Dawn commercial where they use the dawn soap to clean up the oil that’s spilled into their habitat. It’s a happy commercial, seeing the sea lion pups, ducklings, and penguins being free after cleaning the grease and oil off these beautiful creatures, still the harmful effects go unnoticed. In the textbook Marine Mammal Biology: An Evolutionary Approach, they discuss the effects of oil spills on sea otters.  For those of you who don’t know, sea otters have a dense coat of fur that’s highly sensitive and acts as insulation. You can imagine how an oil spill could affect a sea otters life. In fact this was noted in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez (This is a New York Times video, to reacquaint yourself or inform you of this disastrous event) oil spill in Alaska. The crude oil affected the fur insulation and resulted in high mortality of sea otters, as well as harbor seals. Fur seals, polar bears, and sea otters are highly vulnerable to these effects and unfortunately dawn soap won’t easily do the trick to help unseal their fate. In this video uploaded on YouTube to bring awareness to the effect of oil spills/pollution on marine life, the editor shows pictures of marine animals covered in oil, much like Becky in the episode of Saved By The Bell, regrettably this isn’t fiction. Set to the haunting tune of Adam Lambert’s “Mad World” the editor documents cases of oil spills and the dumping of oil all around the globe. I couldn’t stand to watch the whole thing, the images were to upsetting to me, but I encourage all to watch it.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska wasn’t the only oil spill to occur in the United States. On April 20^th of 2010, the Gulf of Mexico faced the largest oil spill in United States history. The spill occurred when a well 5,000 ft. below the ocean’s surface leaked 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It killed 11 people and took 87 days to cap and stop the leak. Years later, according to the Ocean Portal from The Smithsonian (Museum of Natural History), there is still oil in the Gulf. I suggest reading the information on the site, as it really describes the long term effects oil spills have. And as this site and the awareness video I mentioned above state this is happening all over the globe. Right now, oil is being spilled in Nigeria, in the Niger Delta in Africa. In an article published on March 15, 2015 by the Amnesty International, a global movement campaign site that advocates for change, Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil giant ENI admitted to more than 550 oil spills in the last year in the Niger Delta. It’s disgusting that these people have to live around this polluted ecosystem and that this isn’t a much bigger deal. “The companies say that these spills resulted in only 30,000 barrels - or 5 million litres – of oil spilt. However, given the very poor reporting systems used by oil companies this figure is highly likely to be a significant underestimate.” It’s horrifying to even have those numbers, let alone having it possibly be an underestimate. The fact remains is that oil spills have been happening for over twenty years, and it’s not just in the United States. Oil spills have been happening in Africa, Central America, as well as other parts of the world where oil rigs are put up near coastal areas. It not only harms the people but the marine fauna. Think of the episode Pipe Dreams, and the decimation that follows oil spills. These accidents are nearly impossible to prevent. Sure maybe one of these accidents will be small like in Saved By The Bell, but what if it’s not? What if it’s like what happened in the Gulf or like what’s happening in Nigeria? And so what if it’s a small accident and it only affects a small pond; think about the life in that pond, think about Becky. Oil companies cannot guarantee that oil spills won’t happen. As a society we should ask ourselves are we really willing to risk it.

Another reason I chose this topic was because during my downtime I like to go on Tumblr (a popular social media blog site) and just bask in the humor and discussions of the latest episode of a popular TV show. It’s also on this site that I can be updated on global concerns/issues. It was when this Great Barrier Reef post showed up on my dashboard that I stopped in my tracks. I’ve been to the Great Barrier Reef and I was lucky enough to snorkel in the waters filled with an abundance of beautiful coral. It was extraordinary and almost like a whole other world. And to learn someone wants to take up that space and destroy that beautification is horrendous! The post only gives you a brief summarization with what’s happening in Australia with visual images. According to the article “Great Barrier Reef Port Dredging Plan Approved” by MarEx in the Maritime Executive published on March 3, 2015, The Queensland government has allowed two Indian companies to open a coal project around the Great Barrier Reef. They plan on dredging in the waters and dumping the spoil around ports around the reef. This is detrimental to the reef because of what the run-off and pollutants can do this beautiful marine park. As of recently, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has wanted to avoid the effects the dredging would cause on the Reef. On March 21, 2015 in the Sydney Herald, Jacqueline Maley and Fergus Hunter wrote the article “Prime Minister announces extra $100 million for Great Barrier Reef protection.” Here the Abbott government proposed a sustainability plan to ensure the Reef stays off the “in danger” list. This new plan will still allow the dumping of dredged material but it won’t allow the material to be dumped into the marine park. I for one am confused about why they would dump it in the Reef in the first place. I don’t think it’s a secret that if the world’s largest coral reef population depletes, it will cause serious damage to surrounding ecosystems. In the book Management of Aquatic Disposal of Dredged Material , It’s said that dredged material that run-offs into the water is likely to cause eutrophication. Eutrophication is the enrichment of an ecosystem with chemical nutrients and cultural eutrophication is a form of water pollution. Eutrophication can cause HABS (harmful algae blooms) which can kill fish, mammals, and corals due to lack of oxygen. Now imagine The Great Barrier Reef completely depleted because of the eutrophication effects. It’s a scary thought and horrible to imagine. Just go back to that Tumblr post and see the images of desolate coral reefs.

I’ve been to the Great Barrier Reef, it’s vibrant and the thriving population there is amazing. On my way there I got to see a humpback whale migrating and experience the wonders the Reef has to give. But not only would I like to be able to experience it once again, I’d like everyone to be able to experience it, but with oil spills occurring and the constant dredging ruining these ecosystems, it’s hard to imagine that happening.