Gulf oil spill study finds lasting damage to marine life

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe claim under review: more than sixteen years after the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico is still showing lasting damage to marine life, ABC News reports.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorNow, a lot of people hear lasting damage and think bad. I prefer to call it a long-term ocean transition.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe study is in the journal PNAS.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIn the key layer, fish numbers dropped sixty-three point five percent from the year after the spill to twenty fifteen, the AP says.

5. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSixty-three percent. I assume the statement reads, we are right-sizing the twilight zone.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorCrustaceans fell sixty-two percent, squid and octopuses fell fifty-nine point seven.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAnd the AP says the krill population dropped seventy-two percent, so that's the worst line on the page.

8. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorEvidence for: the researchers say the well dumped one hundred thirty-four million gallons of oil, and point to the spill as the most likely cause.

9. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThey checked temperature, oxygen and food, and none of them varied with the decline.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe catch is that nobody looked at this layer before the spill.

11. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe twilight zone had not been studied before twenty ten. So the baseline is the disaster.

12. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorAnd the rebound? They kept sampling after twenty fifteen.

13. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThere was a slight rise in twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-three, but it was not statistically significant or lasting.

14. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorI'd call it a rumor of recovery.

15. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe rating is Full Bonkers, and the twilight zone finally got some attention. It cost sixty-three point five percent of the fish.