European+sea+bass+show+chronic+impairment+after+exposure+to+crude+oil

[|European sea bass show chronic impairment after exposure to crude oil] Written: October 4th, 2017 Source: Science Daily News

This article describes the long term effects of oil spills on the aquatic life in the oceans. Humanity may be underestimating marine life’s ability to handle low oxygen levels for long periods of time, according to research done by the University of British Columbia. They tested sea bass, which are normally rather tolerant of these types of environments, for longer than 6 months. They have concluded that even subtle oil residuals will create a ripple effect and affect the population of European sea bass in the long run.
 * A summary: **

This article relates to environmental science because the effect of oil spills and human interaction with their environment will eventually affect the aquatic life within the water we are polluting. The cons of human use of oil involves the land disturbance and water pollution of oil-drilling, erosion acceleration, leakage of drilling muds, and altering global climates (Miller 373). Irresponsible human use of this nonrenewable resource will cause a long term consequence for marine animals like the European sea bass. Oil spills can be either point or nonpoint sources, depending on whether they are from runoff land areas or oil wells, but either way, they run the high risk of polluting our waters (Miller 535). Most US harbors and bays are badly polluted from municipal sewage, industrial wastes, and oil (Miller 544). These causes have shown to give fish cancerous sores and rotting fins, and cover crabs in mysterious burn holes.
 * How the article relates to the course: **

I wish that the human interactions with our environment never affected the innocent wildlife, but every little detail has shown to create a butterfly effect that brings consequences to the animals. This study was very eye-opening when they found that European sea bass, which were normally highly tolerant to low-level oxygen environments, were no longer tolerant in a long term situation. Therefore, if the oil spills continued without prevention or action, our aquatic animals would become endangered and then extinct. This is awful, and this experiment should be introduced to more people to show that the oil spills and human effect on the environment is truly taking a toll on the aquatic life.
 * Your opinion: **

One law that clearly relates to this article is the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. This law prevents and limits the dumping of any material that would affect human or animal or environmental health into ocean waters. This law has greatly impacted the oil spills that affect animals, but it must continue to reprimand such actions in the future, for it will end up hurting not just humanity, but aquatic life for a long time. Another law it applies to is the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1965 which set standards for pollution levels or limiting emissions or effluents for various classes of pollutants.
 * An environmental law: **


 * Picture**

Picture Source