Expect the ecological recovery from the Huntington Beach oil spill to be "very uneven," Steve Murawski, a fisheries biologist and marine ecologist at the University of South Florida, told The Guardian.
Murawski, who has spent years studying the effects of the much larger 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, explained that birds and marine mammals will be among the species hardest hit by the incident in the short term. That's especially true for animals that pass through California's coastal wetlands, where oil can get buried "below the level of the sediments" and remain there "pretty much forever." Birds are particularly vulnerable, The Guardian notes, because coming into contact with even just a small amount of oil can destroy their feathers' ability to insulate them, which can lead to hypothermia and starvation.
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.
-
Donald Trump vs the WHOIn The Spotlight US withdrawal from the World Health Organization could backfire by increasing China's global sway
-
The best dystopian TV shows to watch in 2025The Week Recommends From Severance to Silo, these 'mind-bending' shows make for disturbing viewing
-
Foreigners in Spain facing a 100% tax on homes as the country battles a housing crisisUnder the Radar The goal is to provide 'more housing, better regulation and greater aid,' said Spain's prime minister
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocketSpeed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
-
Cautious optimism surrounds plans for the world's first nuclear fusion power plantTalking Point Some in the industry feel that the plant will face many challenges
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials saySpeed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
-
Abandoned mines pose hidden safety and environmental risksUnder the Radar People can be swallowed by sinkholes caused by these mines, and there are other risks too
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
Diamonds could be a brilliant climate solutionUnder the radar A girl and the climate's best friend
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an oceanSpeed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
