Deep Horizon Four Years Later

On April 20, 2010, BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began. The National Wildlife Federation has published a report on some of the major effects of the oil spill. Their conclusions:

• More than 900 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead or stranded in the oil spill area since April of 2010. In 2013, dolphins were found dead at more than three times normal rates.
• Roughly 500 dead sea turtles have been found every year for the past three years in the area affected by the spill—a dramatic increase over normal rates.
• Oyster reproduction remained low over large areas of the northern Gulf at least through the fall of 2012.
• A chemical in oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has been shown to cause irregular heartbeats in bluefin and yellowfin tuna that can lead to heart attacks, or even death.
• Loons that winter on the Louisiana coast have increasing concentrations of toxic oil compounds in their blood.
• Sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals than sperm whales elsewhere in the world—metals that were present in oil from BP’s well.

The spill has also effected humans as described by Dahr Jamail.