NWF Finds Marine Life Struggling In Oil Slick Off Florida

The front page of Pensacola’s newspaper today proudly proclaims the beaches of Perdido Key have been declared safe because there’s no oil slick within 100 yards of shore. But 20 miles southeast of the Florida city, a National Wildlife Federation-chartered boat found the oil slick devastating wildlife.

After entering the slick, within a couple of miles we came across a line of oil-soaked seaweed. Just as we had seen off Louisiana, marine life was mistaking the oily debris for habitat.

Most prominently, we noticed a blacktip shark swimming through the muck:

But the shark was far from the slick’s only victim. We saw dozens of small fish & several crabs struggling to survive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxKEo82rPUQ&feature=player_embedded

You can see more photos from the trip on Flickr & more NWF videos on YouTube.

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For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.