OIL SPILLS

By: Nicholas Hadler, Alex Han, David Lee

Imagine if you were a killer whale. You’re swimming but all of a sudden, a black substance hits you, and your blow hole is clogged with oil. You can’t move, and you’re swallowing mouthfuls of it. Wouldn't you think it was the end of the world? What are you going to do now?

Why?

Most of the time, oil spills happen because Oil Tankers hit any object near them such as icebergs, shallow waters, and other boats causing mass oil spills.

Sometimes when countries are at war, one country will dump oil in to another country’s ocean.

Oils Spills

Oil spills are one of the

most terrible things that

could happen to nature.

A True Story

The Exxon Valdez was a horrible tragedy to nature. The spill occurred on the night of March 24, 1989. The boat was on its way down from Alaska. Then, the captain noticed there was an iceberg in their route. When the captain changed the route, they hit a shallow reef releasing 11 million gallons of poisonous, crude oil: That’s about 125 Olympic sized swimming pools.

How Far Did it Go

This is where the oil spill began.

This is where it ended.

The whole oil spill was 11,000 square miles: That’s 1,250 miles of Alaska’s coastline. Which is about the size of the whole Atlantic coastline from Maine to Florida.

Impact on Animals

Not Recovering

Recovered Recovering Recovery/Unknown

Common Loon Bald Eagle Black Oystercatcher

Cutthroat Trout

Cormorant River Otter Common Murre Dolly Varden

Harbor Seal Marbled Murrelett

Kittlitz Murrelet

Harlequin Duck Mussel Rockfish

Killer Whales Pacific Herring

Pink Salmon

Sea Otter

Endangered Species

Many animals are endangered because of oil spills:

Sea Birds Killer Whales Seals Otters Fish

HELP US!

Cleaning Up

Our first job is to stop the oil from spreading by putting a “boom” around the spill, which helps keep the oil in one place.

The next thing we can do is use a type of “skimmer” that works like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up the oil from the water.

Cleaning Up

We also use chemicals to get rid of large oil spills, which breaks up the oil into tiny bits.

For larger spills, our experts may set the oil on fire, but the fire sends smoke and gas into the air and leaves ash in the water.

Killer Whales

Adult Killer Whales eat between 3% - 4% of their body weight per day.

Male Killer Whales are called bulls. Female Killer Whales are called

cows. They socially communicate under

water with sounds they produce. Killer Whales are endangered

because of oil spills.

Dolphins

The greatest threat to both Dolphins and Whales is entanglement in fishing gear. If this continues many populations will be lost.

Dolphins sleep with one half of their brain plus one eye closed.

Fresh water River Dolphins of China and South America are the most endangered because of their close proximity to people.

Fish and squid are the diet of Dolphins, they herd them into tight balls.

Credits

Made By: Nicholas Hadler Alex Han

David LeeOur info was found on the many

websites across the web.This could not be done with out thehelp from Mrs.Wyda & Mrs.Lowery.