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The effect of oil pollution on annual plants living in salt marshes
depend on the season : if the plants are in bud , flowering is inhibited ;
if the flowers are oiled they rarely produce seeds ; and if the seeds
are oiled , germination is impaired.
Sea birds :
Unlike most other organisms in teh sea , sea-birds are harmed through
the physical properties of floating oil . If liquid oil contaminates a bird’
s plumage , its water-repellnt properties are lost. If the bird remains
on the sea , water penetrates the plumage and displaces the air
trapped between the feathers and the skin. This air layer provides
buyancy and thermal insulation . With its loss , the plumage becomes
waterloggd and the birds may sink and drown . Even if this does not
happen
, the loss of thermal
insulation results in rapid
rapid
exhaustion of food reserves
in an attempt to maintain
body
temperature , followed by hypothermia , and commonly death.
The species most commonly affected are auks , razorbill ,and puffin s
and some diving sea ducks , these birds spend most of their time on
the surface of the water and so are particularly likely to encounter
floating oil
, and because they dive rather than they fly up when
disturbed , they are as likely as not to resurface through the oil slick ,
so becoming completely coated with oil.
Commercial damage from oil pollution :
Fisheries :
Fixed installations where fish
or shellfish are held in intensive
mariculture are particularly vulnerable to damage from accidental oil
pollution because the aniamls can not escape . A slick of oil drifting
through such an installation may inflict commercial damage quite
incommensurate with the size of the spillage .