How Effective Is Human Involvement?

Kill or Clean?

Birds are affected the most by oil spills

Silvia Gaus is a biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park in Germany has said that instead of cleaning birds after an oil spill, they should be euthanized instead.[7] This is because the birds must undergo tremendous amounts of stress during the entire cleaning process.  Survival rates of cleaned birds are not very high and the birds "will suffer a painful death whether or not the oil is scrubbed from their feathers; few have a chance of surviving."[7]

Cleaning Stresses

• Being physically captured and bathed can be just as traumatic as being doused with oil
• Hormones can be thrown of balance, lowering reproductive success [5]
• Birds are often forced to ingest coal solutions or Pepto Bismol, which can lead to kidney and liver damage[5]
• The birds must be held in captivity in order to be cleaned, and this new environment causes a huge amount of stress to be placed on the animal [7]
• After being cleaned the bird is often taken to a new habitat, which means that it must try to adapt to new predators and prey [7]

There are also several advantages to helping animals who have been negatively impacted by large-scale oil spills.  In some cases cleaning the bird may be the only chance it has for survival. The question becomes, how involved do humans really need to get?

Advantages to Rehabilitation

• Oil soaked feathers prevent the bird from being able to repel water and regulate body temperature, eventually become hypothermic [11]
• Oil makes feathers heavier, which causes the bird to be less buoyant and more vulnerable to drowning [5]
• Birds will try to lick the oil off their feathers, and this ingestion of the oil can lead to severe organ damage [11]

Cleaning of birds is not the only way to help after a large-scale oil spill. There are several ways to help nature along in the clean-up effort.  The question becomes, how involved should humans get?

Dispersants

The purpose of dispersants is to break the oil into small droplets that can disperse over a wider area, making it easier for bacteria to degrade the oil.  They can also help oil slicks on the surface mix into the water, which helps to reduce the immediate danger to marine life. [3]  The addition of dispersants to the water helps to aid the microbes in the bio-degradation process by making it easier to get to the oil. [3]


Nutrients

Microbes thrive in environments that have high levels of nitrogen, phosphate, and iron, so the addition of these nutrients can help enhance the degradation of the oil. [3]


Burning

Setting the oil on fire can break it down into carbon dioxide and water.[3] Burning can lead to air pollution, however, so most clean-up efforts are focused on dredging and skimming.

Dredging

Dredging is an excavation process that uses a device called a dredge to gather bottom sediments to dispose of in another location.  This process is used to remove oil that is denser than water.  It is often used in conjunction with dispersants.


Skimming

This process involves the use of a machine called a skimmer, which separates liquid from particles floating in it, or from another liquid.  Oil can only be removed via skimmers if the water is calm and not rough or wavy.
 
Other animals that are heavily impacted by oil spills:

Sea Turtles

Crabs

Fish

Sharks

Whales

Porpoises

Dolphins