The risk to marine mammals: new Raincoast publication on oil spills

With the ever present and dramatically increasing threat of oil spills in BC waters, we decided to take a hard look at the risk to marine mammals. Knowing that it’s a matter of when, rather than if a spill occurs, what would that mean for the marine mammal species living along the coast of BC? Are some species inherently more at risk from oil spills than others?The paper, Oil Spills and Marine Mammals in British Columbia, Canada, was published this month in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology by Raincoast Conservation biologists and Dr. Peter Ross. It examined 21 marine mammal species present in BC waters and ranked them according to the potential for deleterious consequences in the event of an oil spill.

Read our conservation update here.

Photo by Andy Wright.

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