Study Links Record Dolphin Die-Off In The Gulf Of Mexico To Deepwater Horizon Spill | ThinkProgress

Study Links Record Dolphin Die-Off In The Gulf Of Mexico To Deepwater Horizon Spill | ThinkProgress: 

by Katie Valentine

"Exposure to oil and dispersants from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico to develop lesions and die, according to a new study.
The study, published Wednesday in PLOS One, looked at that the unusually high number of dolphins that died off the coast of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi between June 2010 and December 2012. The researchers compared the 46 dead dolphins they looked at to 106 dolphin carcasses they found outside either outside of the “unusual mortality event” region — dolphins found in places such as South Carolina, Texas, and North Carolina — or found before the Deepwater Horizon spill. The disaster, which killed 11 men and sent millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, occurred in April 2010.
The study found that the dolphins associated with the unusual mortality event — which, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the highest bottlenose dolphin die-off in the Gulf of Mexico, and is ongoing — were more likely to have certain forms of pneumonia and adrenal problems than other dolphins, and that these problems were consistent with exposure to oil and dispersants. The dead dolphins that had been affected by the spill were found with lung, liver, and adrenal lesions.
“These dolphins had some of the most severe lung lesions I’ve ever seen,” Kathleen Colegrove, one of the study’s authors and associate professor at the University of Illinois, said during a press call "



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