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Marcus Mercado
A. Ludwig
English 101
31, May 2016
A Sea of Oil
The ocean is an amazing and big place. This immense place has the tallest mountains and
the most extensive valleys, and its home to over one million known plants and animals. This is a
quite wonderful place full of life and excitement Now imagine this all gone, destroyed for future
generations, our kids never able to fully enjoy what the ocean has to offer because of pollution
due to frequent off shore oil spills. Because of the major effect the Gulf of Mexico oil spill had
on our ecosystem, we must stop all off shore drilling and drill for oil only on land.
There were more than 200 million gallons of crude oil spilt into the ocean over the course
of eighty days before finally being stopped. Imagine thats 200 pools long as football fields of
pollution just dumped into the ocean. Due to the recklessness of the shell oil company, the wild
life suffered the most. One hundred sixty seven thousand sea turtles died due to being exposed to
the oil. In My eyes, thats one hundred sixty seven thousand murders. This is just one of many
species killed because of the oil. Because of if ignorance and greed we caused this once beautiful
place to suffer.
Another species that was impacted greatly was larval fish. A federal study was taken and
it was said that anywhere from two to five mullion larval fish had died. This is an outrages
number of deaths that is more deaths than all the wars America has been in put together. More

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sadly, the red snapper and other species in the oiled areas have been documented with lesions,
rotting fins and oil in their liver. This would eventually lead to their death
Unfortunately dolphins were also affected by this atrocity. But the effects on dolphins
was way worse than any other animal. The effects of the oil on dolphins didnt just cause them
physical harm eventually leading to death. It was slow and painful. The dolphins had a rare lung
diseases that government scientists say is directly caused by the oil spill. This disease would
cause the dolphins to slow down the way they would chase for their food which lead to
starvation because they couldnt catch food. The food they did catch was already infested with
oil. This clearly led to more problems. Another way the terrible oil spill affected the dolphins is
that the oil would get stuck in there blow holes suffocating them to death.
Not only were the animals directly affected by the oil, but habitats on the bottom of the
gulf were as well. At least 770 square miles were affected. Now imagine if someone animals
directly affected by the oil, but habitats on the bottom of the gulf were as well. At least 770
square miles were affected. Now imagine if someone came and dumped 200million gallons of oil
in your neighborhood. What would be the first thing that would come to mind? I am willing to
bet people wouldnt like that too much. Also what if the oil caused people to become deformed,
have bad health, and even worse death? Unfortunately, this is what it was like for the animals
that were affected by the oil. No amount of sorry or we will take better precaution next time
will make off shore drilling ok. We must think of how our mistakes will have on others and the
actions of the oil company caused countless number of animals to die
The coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida were also affected.
Thats a total of 16,000 miles. That is a big chunk of space. Over eight thousand birds, fish,
dolphins, and turtles were killed in just the first six months. The oil was so terrible that it would

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burn the skin and feathers off the birds. Following the massive pain, the birds couldnt fly so they
starved to death. And the ones that didnt make it back to shore eventually drowned. Many of
those were on the endangered species list. That number doesnt count the severely wounded.
Because of the carelessness of the Shell oil company, thousand were killed. This is ruining the
ocean for our future generation including our kids. How can anyone enjoy the ocean and what it
has to offer if everything in it is dead?
The explosion that caused all of this killed 11 people and injured 17 others. Not only did
the wild life suffer but now someone has to go tell those 11 families that their sons or daughters
are dead. The spill was so catastrophic that even after five years oil and dead bodies of sea life
are being washed up on the shore. How enjoyable or beautiful would our beaches look with oil
over the shores mixed in with dead bodies of sea life? This would not resemble the beaches man
y of us know today. But it will be the ones our future generation will know if we dont stop off
shore drilling for oil.
Yes, action was taken to fix the problem, but it was not nearly enough. The rescue teams
used 5.5 billion feet of boom, which is a barrier placed in the ocean to absorb and collect oil.
Another form of action taken to help the environment was about thirty thousand people went out
and collected oil, cleaned beaches, and went out into the ocean to clean and take care of the
animals affected by this disaster. Not one person from the head of the oil company came out to
help, even though they caused this. They did however pay forty billion dollars in fines and 16
billion for the Clean Water Act. They also apologized for this terrible ignorant act. Also, nobody
went to jail for this. Unfortunately, no apologies and no amount of money will bring back all
those innocent animals and those people who died for oil. What kind of message are we sending
as a society if we can just buy our way out of trouble?

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We have not proven responsible enough to drill for oil outside of land. This isnt the first
time an oil spill happened. Also, another tragedy struck, the Santa Barbra oil spill in January 28,
1969 spilling between eighty-hundred thousand barrels of oil into the ocean. Causing yet another
death toll to the oceans ecosystem. Again on March 24, 1989 the Exxon Valdez tanker crashed in
Alaska pouring 10 million gallons of oil into the ocean having if not the same or worse effects
than the Gulf of Mexico spill on the oceans ecosystem. This was considered one of the worst
spills in U.S history. Time and again we have proven as a society we are not ready for off shore
drilling. Not only have we caused disasters but on how we fix them has been terrible too. By
simply throwing money on top of the situation we think we can hide and make it go away but the
truth it is not a very responsible way of handling things. This just goes on to add that we are not
responsible enough to drill for oil off shore. How many people or animals have to die before we
understand off shore drilling is not an option? The ocean cannot take any more disasters before it
becomes a sea of oil and death.
But due to the high demand for oil, oil production cannot be stopped. But there are better
alternatives. On average the U.S. uses up about 19.4 million gallons of oil every day. There has
been little to no alternatives done in the past about stopping off shore drilling. One good
alternative is instead of selling oil we get from land to other countries, we should use it. We are
not the only country on earth that has oil. We should branch out and buy more oil from them.
Another one is stop frequently using items that require oil so the demand wont be so high. Even
little things like carpooling or being conservative with your oil will help
The use of alternative fuel sources is another option. Corn would be a great alternative
because corn is abundant and really easy to grow. We should not completely switch over from
crude oil, but there are alternatives to help support the demand for fuel source so off shore

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drilling isnt needed. Because of widely use of oil, stopping the use of crude oil completely
would be unreasonable thing to ask. But I am asking us to lessen the demand for crude oil.
Another benefit of this alternative fuel source is it would lesson our carbon footprint and
help prevent global warming. This would not only help the oceanic ecosystem but all ecosystems
in general. Today we have cars that run on electricity with big name brands like Tesla and BMW.
There are even special places that the car can be charged up while you shop for convenience and
its free. According to whatcar.com A hydride car is one that uses more than one means of
propulsion. At the moment, that means combing a normal petrol or diesel engine with an electric
motor. The chief advantages of a hybrid are that it uses less fuel and emits less CO2 than most
conventional non hybrid vehicles. Because of this, owners also get extra benefits in the shape of
lower rates of road and company car tax, as well as possibly avoiding congestion charges. So
this alternative uses less fuel and gives less Co2 which is good for the environment. It also saves
few dollars which is a win win situation in my humble opinion of course.
We need to learn as a society to stop being so greedy and learn that actions we take dont
just affect us as individuals but as a whole. Take, for example, the oil spills because of constant
greed for more money and use of oil we caused countless animals and even some people to pay
the ultimate price of their lives. This is why off shore drilling should be stopped.oil is not worth
the lives of humans or millions of animals especially when we have alternatives. This is why off
shore drilling can no longer continue.

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Work Cited
Planet Ocean - Learning Adventures. Planet Ocean - Learning Adventures. N.p., n.d. Web. 01
June 2016.<https://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/planetocean/ocean.html>.
11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill. DoSomething.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.
<https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-bp-oil-spill>.
A Million Gallons of Water --How Much Is It? How Much Is a Million Gallons? Water
Use Measurements, USGS Water-Science School. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.
<http://water.usgs.gov/edu/mgd.html>.
How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill - National Wildlife Federation.
How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill - National Wildlife Federation. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 01 June 2016. <http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/GulfRestoration/Oil-Spill.aspx>.
Seafood Health Facts: Making Smart Choices. Overview of the U.S. Seafood Supply.
N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016. <http://www.seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood-choices/overview-usseafood-supply>.

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