Animals Involved in Oil Spills

When crude oil, gasoline or diesel fuel leaks from a damaged oil tanker, a thick, dark and poisonous liquid mixes with ocean water, affecting all the animals living within range of the spill. It can coat furred and feathered animals, harming their ability to insulate themselves. Unavoidable digestion of oil damages the insides of ocean animals, from the smallest fish to the largest marine mammals.

Seals

• Fur seal pups lose the insulation of their fur when oil adheres to it; they do not have blubber like adults and so often suffer hypothermia. Oil masks the pups' scent, which sometimes causes mothers to not recognize and thus abandon their young. Adults seals are slowed by oil that sticks to their flippers. Oil in water can damage their eyes and, if swallowed, affect their digestive and immune systems, organs, and tissues, leading to infection.

Manatees

• Manatees have hair around their mouths that catches oil that they then digest with their food. They also feed upon coastal sea grass where oil may pool and remain for some time. Digestion of oil can cause inflammation and infection in manatee digestive systems.

Dolphins and Whales

• Although oil does not generally stick to slicker mammal skin, whales and dolphins are not exempt from oil's poisonous effects. Oil makes sea water thicker, preventing baleen whales from being able to strain their food. Pregnant marine mammals can pass on poison to their young through their milk.

Non-mammalian Ocean Life

• Fish mistake oil floating on the surface of the ocean for food and digest it. Oil damages food sources in coral reefs, estuaries and mangrove habitats where fish feed and breed. Shellfish, like mussels and clams, are covered in oil and suffocate. Turtles suffer eye damage and can't lay their eggs on beaches ruined by oil spills.

Birds

• When fish follow the deceiving trail of oil on the ocean surface, sea birds dive to feed on them, covering themselves in oil. This covering breaks down their natural insulation and waterproofing, causing hypothermia or loss of body weight. The weight of the oil keeps them from flying and looking for food and water. It makes them easy targets for predators; it can even cause them to sink. If oil is digested, birds develop stomach ulcers or bleeding.