This article was in the Daily News, please read
New photos released Monday offer a vivid view of the damage wrought on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico following the colossal BP oil spill two years ago.
The images, provided by the federal government to Greenpeace, include sea turtles covered in brown sludge and sperm whales navigating through an oil slick.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in April 2010 resulted in nearly 5 million barrels of oil pouring into waters off the Gulf Coast. The spill was finally capped after almost three months.
John Hocevar, Greenpeace’s director of ocean campaigns, said the photos paint a different picture of the spill — including garbage bags filled with dead sea turtles — rather than “rosy stories of rescued animals being released back into the wild.”
Greenpeace Research Director Kert Davies said the group is also concerned about what else the public has never been told about the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
“These photos are a grim reminder of the real damage that reckless oil corporations cause and also remind us never to stop pushing for transparency and accountability from Big Oil and the government that supposedly regulates its activities,” Davies said in a statement.
The environmental group said it received the photos through a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2010 and obtained through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A NOAA spokesman said in an email that during the BP spill it made “thousands of photographs taken by our scientists available to ensure the public had access to these important images.”
The agency counted more than 600 dead sea turtles from the Gulf and more than 150 dead dolphins and whales.
BP agreed in March to pay about $7.8 billion to resolve more than 100,000 claims for economic loss and spill-related injuries from individuals and businesses.
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