Oil is a very important resource and it accounts for half of the over sea cargo, when those cargo ships get leaks it lets very nasty chemicals into the ocean that can drift the the shore and harm lots of wildlife. Oil has multiple different petrol compounds in it including naphtha, kerosene, gasoline, and residue. Oil is lighter then water so it floats on top, therefore it blocks out light from penetrating the top level of water, but when the oil sits on top of the water for a while it loses some of it toxic petrol products that evaporate out of the mixture and then the big tar balls sink under the water. When crude oil gets onto a girl the bird may try to clean its self and ingest the oil which will poison the bird. Another way mammals that have fur can die is when the oil gets on their coat of fur they loose their insulation properties. The effects of an oil spill aren’t just what you see on the news either. There are many effects that happen over time. If enough oil got into a body of water it could destroy the entire ecosystem.

 

If oil got into a small pond or lake it would most likely kill all wild life. Also the tar that is left from the crude oil will stay in the soil for a long time. It can get into the particles of sand and soil and stay for many years. This can drastically affect the environment, it can kill animals and mutate.

 

There are multiple ways of cleaning up oil spills including making a barrier around the oil and then vacuum the crude oil up, contain the oil in a large underwater dome, absorb it with mushrooms and hair, and use bacteria to eat up the crude oil. But when the oil spills are large like the one in BP oil spill, the oil clean up can be exhausting. So far the BP oil spills is the worst in history for the United States. The oil was released almost a mile under the ocean, it could cause lots of damage to the ecosystem. Manual oil spill clean-up can help but eventually the oil will break down and dissipate.