![]() ![]() Bottlenose dolphins in Mississippi and throughout the Northern Gulf were significantly impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and tracking recovery will require long-term monitoring and an ability to identify and minimize ongoing threats. In January 2021, Commission staff facilitated a virtual workshop focused on enhancing conservation of bottlenose dolphins in Mississippi state waters. The development and refinement of scientifically robust mitigation and monitoring measures to minimize impacts of offshore oil and gas and renewable energy activities on marine mammals, including impacts from oil spills, is one of the Commission’s five strategic objectives. We have also submitted restoration project ideas to the various Trustee Implementation Groups through federal and state portals, and commented on draft restoration plans. We have outlined our priorities for restoration and long-term monitoring, as well as concerns regarding potential impacts of some large-scale restoration projects on marine mammals, in letters (see letters section below) to the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council. The Commission works with scientists and managers across the Gulf to refine and promote recovery and restoration strategies for marine mammals. ![]() In comparison, the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled approximately 257,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989. Eleven of the 126 workers on the rig were killed and, over the following 87 days, an estimated 3.19 million barrels (~134 million gallons) of oil spilled into the Gulf ( 4.0 million barrels minus 810,000 barrels of collected oil). This was the largest oil spill ever reported in U.S. On April 20, 2010, BP’s mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon exploded, burned, and subsequently sank in the Gulf of Mexico 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew (U.S. ![]()
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