You’ve all heard the news: The human and environmental disaster that occurred on April 20 after the Deepwater Horizon caught fire and sank continues to make headlines as the oil spill spreads from the Gulf of Mexico to the coastline. While the President and his administration focus on the political damage caused by the spill and succumb to the growing pressure for action, environmentalists are keeping a close eye on potentially affected wildlife.
And rightfully so. Oil spills often are extremely harmful to marine life for years or even decades after the initial incident. Jacqueline Savitz, a marine scientist and climate campaign director at Oceana, an environmental group, knows the Gulf of Mexico is host to species of endangered sea turtles and bluefin tuna, snapper and grouper.
While the spill has forced fisherman, surfers, kitesurfers, windsurfers and bodyboarders from Louisiana to Florida to take a hiatus from their sport for the coming months, they are being called to help with the beach cleanup. We can only hope the catastrophe will be viewed as a valuable lesson concerning the dangers of offshore oil drilling and the government’s plan of action will quickly combat this not-so-natural disaster and its irreversible affects.
[Via: The Washington Post]
