The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is more commonly known as the BP Oil Disaster or the BP Oil Spill. The spill itself occurred on April 20, 2010 following an explosion on an oil rig that triggered the outpour of oil from the sea-floor. According to reports, the leak itself was stopped on July 15, 2010, almost three months after it began but further reports suggest that a new leak could emerge from the pressure caused by capping the original one. Endless reports suggest that the leak could trigger world-ending side effects for mankind based on the aspects of pollution and toxic methane gases spreading, but one aspect that has seldom been explored as much is the aspect of mass-extinction of marine life.
Mankind is still currently in a state of panic at the potential outcomes the BP Oil Spill will prove to have on the lives of people, while the outcomes it can have and likely already has had on the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas remains to be seen. Even the slightest oil spill has the potential to devastate marine life as seen in past oil spills which has caused endless marine life painful and toxic deaths, sometimes even suffocating after being unable to remove the oil from their bodies as seen with such animals as seals in past spills. The BP Oil Spill however is being called the largest oil spill in history.
With that fact in mind; if the smallest oil spill has the potential to devastate marine life, exactly what can the largest oil spill on record do? The first and foremost aspect is to consider the severity of the oil spill. It spilled upwards from the sea-bed and leaked to the top. It is safe to assume that smaller marine life and crustaceans alike suffered horribly to their deaths, but the widespread damage of the oil spill is still yet to be seen. Considering the overall severity of the oil spill, which can be seen from satellite, it could quite easily have been the first step to triggering a mass-extinction of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico.
Should the smallest fish and crustaceans have been destroyed in the surrounding areas that would essentially mean a shortage of food for larger animals, and the shortage of food for the larger animals at the same time would in turn kill them if the oil failed to do so, and the cycle continues like a chain reaction. While the oil is indeed deadly for the animals themselves, should species of them be out of the affected area, there will still likely be a food shortage for animals inside the food chain that depends on that food chain for survival. It can be said that the BP Oil Spill is a man-made disaster in its own right, but delving deeper beyond the first glances could reveal further disasters in the future.
In general, it seems that the true effects of devastation caused by the BP Oil Spill are yet to be seen. Investigations and research has not yet been undergone to determine the severity of the spill on the marine life or the affected areas of the Gulf of Mexico, but in the next few months or even years, it is almost a given fact that the sheer force of the oil spill will have an endless array of horrible outcomes for the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas, enough to potentially even trigger a mass extinction in the near future.
