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According to Dr. Roger C. Prince, a Senior Research Associate with ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences Inc.,

Crude oil has been part of the biosphere for millions of years, and a large number of microbes, both prokaryotic (6) and eukaryotic, have evolved to consume it. Biodegradation is the eventual fate for all spilled oil that is not collected or burned, and both collection and combustion require that spilled oil be corralled with booms.

Biodegradation is then limited by the surface area of the oil–water interface. On the other, whereas hydrocarbons are rich sources of carbon and energy, oil contains no other useful elements for microbial growth. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the most usual limiting nutrients in the sea, followed by iron and other trace requirements. While seawater contains trace levels of these nutrients, the biodegradation of significant concentrations of oil, such as on a shoreline, is likely to exhaust the local supply. Bioremediation, the stimulation of biodegradation, thus aims to overcome these two limitations.

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According to Julia Watson, a best selling author, a TED fellow, and a leading expert of Lo—TEK nature-based technologies for climate-resilience,

Although global attention is focused on the pandemic, cities are still sinking and sea levels are still rising. And high-tech solutions are definitely going to help us solve some of these problems, but in our rush towards the future, we tend to forget about the past.

In other parts of the world, where rivers are contaminated with sewage, a city of 15 million people cleans its waste water with its flood plains. On the edges of Calcutta, flanked by a smoking escarpment of the city's trash and ribboned by its highways, an Indigenous technology of 300 fish ponds cleans its water while producing its food. And through a combination of sunshine and sewage and a symbiosis between algae and bacteria, the wastewater is broken down. Fish ponds continue this cleaning of the water in a process that takes around 30 days.

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According to Xingjian Xu, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and their team,

In recent years, the use of bacteria to deal with environmental pollutants has become a promising technology because of its low cost and eco-friendly nature

Many environmental factors such as temperature, nutrients, electron acceptors and substrates play vital roles in bioremediation and influence biodegradation reactions (Varjani and Upasani, 2017). This is why most researchers have found that many petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria can achieve excellent results during degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons under laboratory conditions yet exhibit dissatisfactory results in field-scale tests.

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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

Benzene works by causing cells not to work correctly. For example, it can cause bone marrow not to produce enough red blood cells, which can lead to anemia. Also, it can damage the immune system by changing blood levels of antibodies and causing the loss of white blood cells.

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According to an article on the impact of oil spills on marine life by Ismail Saadoun, a professor and chairman at the Department of Applied Biology at the University of Sharjah-UAE,

These mainly consist of hydrocarbons, in addition to heterocyclic compounds and some heavy metals. The different hydrocarbons that make up crude oil come in a wide range of molecular weights and structure compounds. These compounds include methane gas, high molecular weight tars, asphaltenes, resins, waxes and bitumens. They also include straight and branched chains, single or condensed rings and aromatic rings such as the monocyclic (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene). They additionally include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as naphthalene, anthracene and phenanthrene.

One major effect of oil is narcosis, a reversible anesthetic effect caused by the oil partitioning into the cell membrane and nervous tissue. This causes dysfunctions of the central nervous system

Hydrocarbons have a volatile nature and, therefore, inhalation of them results in respiratory tract irritation and narcosis of mammals and birds.

When oil hydrocarbons are ingested by marine animals, they travel to the liver where enzymes activate PAHs to become more toxic and reactive products. The metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and aliphatic hydrocarbons can be highly toxic and carcinogenic [26]. In particular, PAHs are the major contributors to toxicity, with different metabolic pathways producing metabolites. These have oxidative and carcinogenic properties due to their ability to attack and bind to DNA and proteins [24]. Hydrocarbons have a volatile nature and, therefore, inhalation of them results in respiratory tract irritation and narcosis of mammals and birds.

Generally, undispersed oil poses the greatest threat to shorelines and surface dwelling organisms. However, most dispersed oil remains in the water column where it mainly threatens pelagic and benthic organisms

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Lens: Scientific
Claim: The effects of oil contamination are reversible.
1. List specific composition of crude oil
2. Discuss how different aspects of oil affect animals differently with specific examples of benzene and narcosis
3. Refute negative consequences of oil with evidence on microbes that eat oil, and all oil will eventually be broken down

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According to Associate Professor Larissa M. Williams in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at North Carolina State University,

One species that has adapted to a wide range of estuarine environments is the teleost fish, Fundulus heteroclitus.

Subpopulations of F. heteroclitus inhabit clean estuaries as well as those heavily impacted by chemical pollutants. Three well-known polluted sites where F. heteroclitus reside are New Bedford Harbor (Massachusetts), Newark Bay (New Jersey), and Elizabeth River (Norfolk, VA). All three sites have been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Superfund sites (part of the federal government's program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites) and contain high levels of a variety of lipophilic, persistent and toxic contaminants worthy of remediation using Federal funds. All three Superfund sites are highly contaminated with chemical pollutants that are broadly classified as aromatics. New Bedford Harbor is polluted with extremely high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls as well as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCD), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and several trace metals. Newark Bay is most notorious for containing 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) as well as other dioxins and also is contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs and PAHs. The Elizabeth River is predominantly contaminated with creosote, comprised of a complex mixture of PAHs.

F. heteroclitus from these chronically polluted areas are resistant to the aromatic hydrocarbons in their environment as compared to nearby fish from relatively clean environments.

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Claim: Stimulate and utilize oil-eating microbes to clean up oil spills.

Implications: Large-scale clean-up of oil spills by natural means

Limitations: Not completely reliable compared to lab tests due to environmental factors

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According to Dr. Mace G. Barron, a PhD in toxicology at the United States Environmental Protection Agency,

Acute toxic effects from oil ingestion, inhalation, smothering, drowning and hypothermia included mortality of 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs

In some cases, these acute impacts may have led to long-term demographic injury. For example, the AT1 pod of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Prince William Sound were observed surfacing in the oil slick. The pod suffered high mortality rates following the spill and has had no recruitment since 1989 and is not expected to recover

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According to Eric Bender, former associate director for communications and public affairs at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,

Probably the best-known example of urban evolution is the English peppered moth whose coloration darkened in the 19th century in response to coal pollution.

In a famous 1955 paper, British geneticist Bernard Kettlewell presented evidence that this was a case of natural selection in which darkness helped the moths evade bird predation as they rested on sooty tree trunks.

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Lens: Environmental
Claim: Animals are able to adapt to adverse conditions.
1. Address counterargument that oil spills are detrimental to ecosystems with specific example about whale pod
2. Refute counterargument with concept of evolution and specific example of aquatic sea life adapting to toxic chemicals

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According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), a non-profit organization dedicated to spill response, claims analysis & damage assessment, contingency planning and advisory work, training and education and information,

For the year 2022, three large spills (>700 tonnes) and four medium spills (7-700 tonnes) were recorded.

Two of the large spills occurred in Asia and one in Africa. The medium spills occurred in North America, Asia and Africa.

This brings the decade average to almost 6 spills (>7 tonnes) per year. This is on a par with the average for the 2010s.

From 1970 to 2022, approximately 5.88 million tonnes of oil was lost as a result of tanker incidents globally

Spills in excess of 7 tons have reduced by over 90% since 1970.

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The draft plan allocated up to $8.8 billion for restoration from a proposed settlement with BP. It was based on our thorough assessment of impacts to the Gulf's natural resources and the services they provide.

Before it was capped three months later, approximately 134 million gallons of oil had spilled into the Gulf, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

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The average yearly amount of oil entering the oceans from such sources was 314 000 tons in the 1970s, with no single year below 138 000. In the first decade of the third millennium, the average was 21 000 tons, with no year above 63 000 tons (Oil Tanker Spill Statistics 2009). The year 2009, even ended with the astonishingly low figure of 100 tons.

The number of marine spills (of over 0.17 tons each) has increased from an average of 47 per year in the decade from 1968–1977, to 188 ruptures and 228 leakages, respectively, in the following decades (GESAMP 2007). In the first decade of this millennium, some 350 pipeline spills have been reported.

One is the ageing of pipelines and pumping stations. Especially in the former Soviet Union this is the cause of many leakages, and some of them are allowed to go on for years with the only remedial action being ditches and dams dug out to contain the oil. Also, in tropical West Africa, for example, age, sloppy maintenance, and corrosive conditions have led to many ruptures. Here, however, another factor also comes into play: pipelines become military targets in uprisings and tribal wars. The delta of the Niger River and parts of the Amazon are areas where intentional pipeline destruction regularly occurs.

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Lens: Historical
Claim: Effects of oil spills are shrinking worldwide.
1. Discuss how many spills have occurred, how much oil has been spilled
2. Address counterargument with specific example of BP oil spill and cost of recovery
3. Refute counterargument with statistics on how number of oil spills have decreased, and volume of spilled oil has decreased overall

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According to Dr. Arne Jernelöv, a Swedish biologist and environmental scientist who has served as Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna,

The number of marine spills (of over 0.17 tons each) has increased from an average of 47 per year in the decade from 1968–1977, to 188 ruptures and 228 leakages, respectively, in the following decades (GESAMP 2007). In the first decade of this millennium, some 350 pipeline spills have been reported.

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According to former president Barack Obama,

“Yes, this is an unprecedented environmental disaster; it’s the worst in our nation’s history”

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1. Obama's quote hooks reader
2. Jernelov discusses prevalence of oil spills
3. NOAA assures reader that not all spills have huge consequences
4. Raising question of how ecosystems recover
5. Answer question with thesis

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According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a U.S. government organization with the purpose of sharing information on the changing environment,

Most of these spills are small, for example when oil spills while refueling a ship. But these spills can still cause damage, especially if they happen in sensitive environments, like beaches, mangroves, and wetlands. Large oil spills are major, dangerous disasters. These tend to happen when pipelines break, big oil tanker ships sink, or drilling operations go wrong.

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RQ: To what extent are aquatic ecosystems able to recover from oil spills in American waters?
THESIS: In an analysis of the scientific, environmental, and historical perspectives, aquatic ecosystems have the potential to recover for the most part from crude oil spills in the long run. Ecosystem recovery is possible due to the reversibility of oil contamination, animals' adaptability and resilience, and declining prevalence of oil spills worldwide.