Dispersants: A Guided Tour - Part Two

Why Use Dispersants?

Oil slicks on the water surface are particularly dangerous to seabirds and fur-bearing marine mammals. Oil interferes with the animal's or bird's ability to maintain its body temperature, often resulting in death from hypothermia.

Sea otters (Enhydra lutra), like the one at left, are especially vulnerable. Removing oil from the sea surface as quickly as possible reduces the risk to birds and mammals.

Dispersing an oil slick can also prevent oil from coming ashore, minimizing impacts to biologically sensitive shoreline environments, like the oiled mangrove swamp below, as well as economically-important areas like tourism beaches, and culturally-important areas, like archaeological sites.

Mangrove Swamps

Mangrove swamps provide valuable habitat for nesting birds, juvenile fish, and many other species. Mangroves are very vulnerable to oil, which can kill or cause lasting damage to the trees.

(To learn more about the long-term effects of oil on coastal environments, check our online reports on the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.)

An Oiled Swimming Beach

Oil spilled from a damaged freighter came ashore in Puerto Rico in 1994, oiling this hotel swimming beach and lagoon (photo above). Floating oil, along with submerged oil mixed with sediment, appears as a dark patch along the lagoon shore.