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Although large oil spills are not the biggest contributor to oil in the ocean they do have some of the most damaging effects. This is why they get so much attention in the media. Because the large spills from things like drills and tankers are releasing large amounts of oil into a small area they have a larger impact. The concentration of oil becomes so high in that small area that it kills a very significant amount of the local marine life. Rather than a much larger amount of oil being dispersed throughout the ocean, and slowly building up to cause more harmful effects in the near future, large oil spills cause very damaging effects in a small area. It is important to understand that large oil spills are not the only problem and that we can make a much more significant impact by tackling issues like land runoff.
S. Goryl, R. O'Brien
Oil spills affect animals and plants from the oil and from the cleanup. There are two huge ways in which it can affect animals and there are also two large-scale ways that companies try to fix it, and there are ways that the impacts can potentailly help minimize overall degradation in cleanup from companies
Oil can harm living things because it contain chemicals that are poisonous to beings. This can and will affect organisms from internal exposure through food and unintentional ingestion orbreathing and from external exposure with skin and eye irritation and other methods of skin transfer, whether it be through contact or non-contact (NEAQ)
Animal/Plant Effects