An oil spill caused by the collision between a barge and ship that left 170,000 gallons of oil floating in the ocean is damaging the habitat of thousands of shorebirds. The Coast Guard temporarily closed the Houston Ship Channel's passageway into the Gulf of Mexico in order to limit the impact of the spill on the birds living in Galveston Bay, but some oil-covered birds have been spotted along the coast.
The collision occurred near a channel in Texas City, where shorebirds are known to winter. The impact so far has been small, with only 50 birds needing treatment due to injuries sustained from the oil spill, but environmentalists are now concerned that the oil could wash up as tar balls, float onto the coast, and further damage the natural habitat of several thousand more birds. The Coast Guard said it laid booms around environmentally sensitive areas to protect them from the oil. --Jordan Valinsky
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks groundSpeed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resignsSpeed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescueSpeed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in MoroccoSpeed Read
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female presidentSpeed Read
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. saysSpeed Read
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprisingSpeed Read
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
