Deepwater Horizon disaster continues to harm environment [View all]

[Rhiannon12866]

This week, as we mark the fourth anniversary of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, evidence of that catastrophe's effects on wildlife continues to emerge.

Despite sunny assurances from BP, the largest oil spill in U.S. history is leaving its mark on everything from marine mammals to mollusks.

Bottlenose dolphins have been particularly hard-hit.

Some 900 of these graceful creatures have been found stranded, most of them dead, in the northern Gulf between April 2010 and March 2014, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently published a study linking the ill health of dolphins in Louisiana's Barataria Bay - anemia, adrenal problems and lung disease - to oil exposure.

Birds that migrate through the Gulf Coast or winter here are likewise showing signs of oil exposure.

http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Kaderka-Deepwater-Horizon-disaster-continues-to-5414014.php



A flotilla of fire boats battle flames in the aftermath of the explosion of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 21, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. Photo By U.S. Coast Guard/Handout