Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

An explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform on April 20, 2010. The explosion caused millions of barrels of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico. There were several reasons why the Macondo exploded starting with a gas leak and ending with an unsuccessful blowout preventer. As a result of the spill, wildlife was immediately affected. Birds, Turtles, Dolphins, and many more animals were greatly affected by this disaster causing many deaths and a decline in several animal populations. BP has spent over $14 billion and over 70 million personnel hours to clean up the spill. Methods of cleanup consisted of booms and skimmers; booms are physical barriers that trapped the oil inside the booms boundary while skimmers are boats with nets that would pick up oil near the surface. The Gulf of Mexico still suffers today from what happened on April 20, 2010 and BP still continues to fix its mistake.