Dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay much sicker after BP oil spill

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http://grist.org/climate-energy/dolphins-in-louisianas-barataria-bay-much-sicker-after-bp-oil-spill/

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A year after BP’s disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a team of researchers found that dolphins in the vicinity of the spill showed major signs of sickness, a new study says.

According to a new peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, a team of government, academic, and non-governmental researchers identified previously unseen health issues in bottlenose dolphins examined in August 2011 in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay.

Researchers examined 32 dolphins, including 29 that received comprehensive physical and ultrasound examinations. Nearly half of the sampled population were identified as being in “guarded or worse” condition, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Another 17 percent were in poor or grave condition and “not expected to survive.” Among the health problems were lung damage and low levels of adrenal stress-response hormones. A quarter of the dolphins were also underweight.

The researchers said the dolphins’ symptoms resemble those of mammals in laboratory studies of oil exposure. “The decreased cortisol [hormone] response is something fairly unusual but has been reported from experimental studies of mink exposed to fuel oil,” researchers said. “The respiratory issues are also consistent with experimental studies in animals and clinical reports of people exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons.”