Many animals and plants were affected by the spill.
Sea Otters
The Sea Otter is one of the many animals that was affected by the oil spill. Up to 3,000 otters were coated in oil the first months after the oil spill. The oil got into the sea otters very unique fur with a range from 250,000 to a million hairs per square inch, this fur insulates them. When the oil gets into their fur you can only imagine how much space the oil would have to be able to cling onto. Also because sea otters wrap themselves in kelp (kelp also had a lot of oil on it) the oil was also spread faster.
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kelp
Kelp is also another victim of the oil spill. "As predators, sea otters are critical to maintaining the balance of the near-shore kelp ecosystems. Without sea otters, the undersea animals they prey on would devour the kelp forest off the coast that provides cover and food for many other marine animals." The kelp was also important because kelp forests play an important part in capturing carbon, if all the kelp dies, it could be very dangerous, even for humans.
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harbor seal
Another animal that was endangered by the oil spill was the Harbor Seal. "In some parts of the Sound, 80 percent of the seals had on them in May 1989 and remained oiled until their molt in August." Based on an aireal survey conducted at trend-count haul out sites in Prince William Sound before the spill, in 1988, and after the spill, in 1989, the number of seals had declined by 43%, compared to 11%, in areas that had not been oiled.
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sea birds
Many different types of sea birds were severely affected by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. About 250,000 sea birds were killed in the days immediately after the spill. This is because sea birds are constantly in the water and they need the water to survive. When the oil gets in contact with the birds feathers many bad things can happen. "Oiling of fur or feathers causes loss of insulating capacity and can lead to death from hypothermia, smothering, drowning, and ingestion of toxic hydrocarbons."
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