The Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the BP-operated prospect in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is recognized as the largest marine oil spill in history, leading to grave economical and ecological disasters. Last week, the panel overseeing the BP oil spill damage money agreed to spend another several million dollars on the recovery of coastal areas.
Louisiana approved to not only set aside its share for marsh construction and restoration of oyster beds, but also dedicate 3.1 million US-dollar into the Marine Mammal Project. After the oil spill, dolphins and other marine wildlife had been recorded to die in record numbers. While the stranding rate had decreased initially, numbers have increased again during the last year due to unusually high flows in the Mississippi River. Instead of the average 82 marine mammals stranding along the Louisiana coast per year, 98 strandings had occurred between February and May in 2019 alone. “That extreme amount of freshwater in the coastal area was linked to many of the strandings, which resulted in the National Marine Fisheries Service declaring an “unusual mortality event” that it said was exacerbated by continuing health effects from the 2010 BP spill.” This increase in cases heavily strained the capacity of Louisiana’s stranding network which could only respond to about half of the cases due to budget constraints.
With the new budget, the recently designated primary response organization Audubon Nature Institute Coastal Wildlife Network will be supported for the next five years. The money would be used to hire a stranding coordinator and improve the links in the stranding network. With this money, they hope to be able to respond more appropriately to the transitioned stranding responsibilities and improve partnerships.
The full report can be found here: https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_17debd6c-da7d-11ea-b2d4-43c9a8714188.html
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