The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill has been linked to the alarming surge in deaths of stillborn and baby dolphins in the Gulf Coast, according to a new study. They inherited chronic illnesses as their mothers were exposed to oil.
More than 1,400 dolphins and whales have been discovered dead in the Gulf Coast since the BP soil spill began in April 2010, something scientists have termed an “unusual mortality event.”
A study last year from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) directly linked the deaths of many bottlenose dolphins to the effects of the spill, and now a new study has done the same with deceased stillborn and young dolphins. Published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, the study concluded that the reason for many of the deaths was chronic illnesses that the mothers suffered from as a result of the oil spill. It found that 88 percent of all stillborn and baby dolphins that were found in the spill zone had abnormal lungs, including partially or completely collapsed lungs. FULL REPORT
