Sickening: The effects of 2010 Gulf Oil Spill

NEW ORLEANS— As the one-year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil-spill disaster approaches, the Center for Biological Diversity today released a report tallying the full impacts of the disaster on the region’s birds, sea turtles, dolphins and other wildlife.

The report, titled A Deadly Toll: The Gulf Oil Spill and the Unfolding Wildlife Disaster, compiles federal data, scientific papers and media accounts to estimate the number of animals hurt by the spill so far. Using multipliers to calculate the true cost of the damage to wildlife species, the Center estimates that approximately:

6,000 sea turtles,
26,000 dolphins and whales,
82,000 birds,
and countless fish and invertebrates may have been harmed by the disaster.


Based on the documented, ongoing effects of previous oil spills, pollution from the 2010 BP spill will continue to affect Gulf wildlife for decades.

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