As I start off this section, I would like to point out that although there is indeed media coverage of oil spills and its environmental impacts in Singapore, it is often limited, not extensive, and follow-up cases of the events are rare. Therefore, I apologize that the following analysis would be slightly more towards the general scale, with great efforts to bring in Singapore’s examples and cases.
The damage oil spills bring about greatly depends on a variety of factors, such as the quantity and type of oil involved, weather conditions as well as how the oil interacts with the marine environment.
Oil spills and pollution have always been cruel to the marine environment and the diverse marine life it supports. When an oil spill makes its way into the environment, the marine life is often the worst impacted victim. Oil spills are especially harmful to marine creatures such as marine birds, turtles, fishes and other marine mammals.
Firstly, it should be pointed out that marine animals do not seem to be capable of avoiding oil slicks in their environment, which makes the oil spill situation a whole lot more thorny. The oil that invades the marine environment coats itself on the bodies of many marine animals such as birds and furred mammals.
Seabirds dead as a result of oil spill
Photo source: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Otters coated in oil
Photo source: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
A seal succumbing to an oil spill
Photo source: Galley for oil spill seal
Oil-soaked penguins getting cleaned
Photo source: Oil Spills: Impact on the Ocean
In the case of birds, the oil coated on them makes it difficult for them to fly properly and affects the water repellency of their feathers, causing them to be vulnerable to predators as well as harsh weather conditions respectively. As for the case of furred mammals, the oil coated on their fur affects their insulating capacity, making them easy victims of cold conditions which could eventually cause them to die from hypothermia.
Secondly, oil spills pose as a danger to marine animals because of its toxic nature. Many marine animals and birds are prone to ingesting oil when they attempt to drink or clean themselves up, which serves to poison them. Ingesting these oils can result in consequences such as ulcers, internal bleeding, and damage to the liver, kidney and other internal organs as well as the immune system. These effects are often lethal, inevitably causing the animals’ deaths. Even if the marine animals do not ingest the oil, just mere oil exposure and contact can result in non-lethal impacts. Such impacts would include skin irritations and injuries to the liver as well as the eyes. Despite these impacts not being lethal, they pose as obstacles whereby food and shelter hunting become more tedious and avoiding predators becomes challenging. All these eventually decrease the survival rate of the marine animals, which simply means death, just a matter of sooner or later. Predators that feed on these affected preys would also experience similar symptoms of oil intoxication.
Therefore, we see that the impacts of oil spills are profound and widespread, not just confined to a particular area or species. It is discouraging to know that young animals are often more vulnerable to oil spills than their adult counterparts, because of their small sizes and their underdeveloped immune systems.