An Oil Spill Killed the Gulf's Dolphins—Are Santa Barbara's Marine Mammals Next?

[Omaha Steve]

A new study shows the strongest link yet between the Deepwater Horizon spill and the deaths of Gulf dolphins.



Bottlenose dolphin swimming in Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)


http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/21/oil-spill-killed-gulf-dolphins-santa-barbara?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-05-21

May 21, 2015 By Taylor Hill

Taylor Hill is TakePart's associate environment and wildlife editor.

For the past five years, dolphins have been dying in the Gulf of Mexico at higher-than-normal rates.

While multiple studies have labeled the 168 million gallons of oil left behind by the Deepwater Horizon spill as a “contributing factor” to the mortalities, a new study appears to leave little doubt: The petroleum that blanketed the Gulf Coast in 2010 is killing the animals.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that bottlenose dolphins stranded in the oil spill–affected area had higher rates of lung and adrenal lesions—ailments found in other marine mammals exposed to petroleum products after an oil spill—than dolphins outside the Gulf.

“These dolphins had some of the most severe lung lesions I have seen in the 13-plus years that I have examined dead dolphin tissues from throughout the U.S.,” said Kathleen Colegrove, a veterinary diagnostic laboratory professor at the University of Illinois and a coauthor of the study, which was published in the journal PLOS One.

FULL story at link.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Kick