Essay On Marine Environment

3.0 Environmental Impacts

3.1 Animals in Marine Environments

There is no clear relationship between the amount of oil in the marine environment and the likely impact on wildlife. A smaller spill at the wrong time wrong season and in a sensitive environment may prove much more harmful than a larger spill at another time of the year in another or even the same environment. Even small spills can have very large effects. Thus, one should not merely compare figures, the size of an oil spill is certainly not the only factor of importance in terms of what environmental damage can be caused by the oil.

Although, Guyana have not experienced an oil spill, we can learn from the environment impacts that resulted from our neighboring island, Trinidad’s oil spills over the past three years. There are somewhere between 400 to 500 different species of marine fish as well as 21 different types of

Their sensitivity seems to be highly variable and appear to be most directly connected to how important their fur and blubber (layer of fat under the skin) are for keeping them warm. Thus, marine mammals living in cold climates (seals, sea lions, polar bears and otters) are likely to be more vulnerable than those living in temperate or tropical waters.

• Effects of oil on marine mammals depend upon species may, in addition to hypothermia, include: toxic effects and secondary organ dysfunction due to ingestion of oil; congested lungs; damaged airways; interstitial emphysema due to inhalation of oil droplets and vapour; gastrointestinal ulceration and hemorrhaging due to ingestion of oil during grooming and feeding; eye and skin lesions from continuous exposure to oil; decreased body mass due to restricted diet; and stress due to oil exposure and behavioural changes.

3.1.4 Sea