Q&A with Erik Johnson on the Lasting Impact of the BP Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 individuals and spilling an estimated 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In remembrance of that catastrophe 15 years in the past, I sat down with Erik Johnson, Director of Conservation Science for Audubon Delta, to debate the way it formed the final 15 years.

Kelly McNab: What was your function through the BP oil spill and the way did you develop into concerned with Audubon?

Erik Johnson: In 2010, I used to be a Ph.D. candidate at Louisiana State College, engaged on my dissertation and making ready to graduate the next 12 months. Most of my fieldwork was carried out when the Deepwater Horizon spill hit in April—and it rapidly grew to become clear this wasn’t going to be a short-lived occasion.

A fellow grad scholar in my lab, Jared Wolfe, had labored on Pure Useful resource Injury Evaluation (NRDA) efforts in California and had seen how neighborhood science—particularly birding teams—performed a major function in contributing to conservation efforts. That sort of grassroots effort didn’t actually exist within the Gulf, so he reached out to the Baton Rouge Audubon Society to prepare volunteers to watch the shoreline after the spill. He requested if I needed to be concerned, and I jumped on the likelihood, pondering it might be a small aspect venture. It rapidly grew to become far more than that.

Inside days, we started mobilizing volunteers and shortly caught the eye of Audubon workers throughout the Gulf area. We constructed a volunteer community stretching from Galveston Bay to the Florida Panhandle, with volunteers amassing information on oiled birds utilizing NRDA-aligned protocols. As a result of we weren’t sure by the authorized restrictions formal NRDA groups confronted, we might rapidly share what we had been seeing, publish numbers, and preserve the general public knowledgeable and engaged.

My function was organizing volunteers and serving to form the monitoring protocols, which needed to be versatile as a result of coastal entry continually shifted as seashores opened and closed. Via November 2011, volunteer chook surveyors collected round 60,000 observations, which helped us perceive how often birds had been being oiled.

On the time, I wasn’t Audubon workers—only a volunteer. However the spill response helped spark broader investments within the Gulf. In 2011, I used to be employed as a Gulf Coast Regional Conservation Biologist to assist form a brand new regional technique. When Audubon Louisiana [now Audubon Delta] launched in 2012, I grew to become Director of Conservation and began constructing a state-level chook program.

That early volunteer effort grew to become the inspiration for the Audubon Coastal Bird Survey, which nonetheless runs right now—monitoring migratory and non-breeding shorebirds throughout the Gulf Coast via neighborhood science.

KM: How did you and your workforce measure and observe the quick impacts of the spill on chook species? What had been the first strategies you used to gather information?

EJ: When the spill occurred, eBird was nonetheless in its early days, however use by birders was changing into extra widespread. We labored with the eBird workforce so as to add NRDA oiling codes (from hint oil to totally oiled) so volunteers might log what they noticed. The objective wasn’t to depend each chook, however to evaluate particular person birds for oil and transfer on.

We documented round 1,000 visibly oiled birds, with the best concentrations in southeast Louisiana. As you moved east or west from that space, oiling charges declined. Volunteers submitted observations as rapidly as doable, and the information gave us a snapshot of the place impacts had been most extreme.

Survey places had been largely access-driven—Grand Isle and Elmer’s Island had been key places early on, and infrequently, we might get out to barrier islands by boat. In Mississippi, even when seashores had been technically closed, volunteers might typically assess birds from the roadside utilizing recognizing scopes.

The surveying space stretched from the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas to the Panhandle of Florida. In areas with fewer restrictions, like Mississippi and Alabama, we had been in a position to set up formal routes sooner. By fall 2010, we began establishing related transects in Louisiana.

KM: Within the aftermath of the spill, was there one chook species that was most affected, and why?

EJ: Just a few species stood out after the spill. Brown Pelicans, Louisiana’s state chook, had been closely impacted, however powerful to evaluate within the discipline due to their darkish plumage—mild oiling didn’t at all times present except you bought a detailed look. Laughing Gulls, in contrast, had been simpler to judge. They’re considerable and have shiny white feathers, so oil was extra seen, and we noticed loads of them affected.

Shorebirds like Sanderlings had been particularly weak. These birds stay within the intertidal zone, continually operating up and down the seaside with the motion of the waves to feed on small invertebrates. As a result of they spend time in that slender band the place oil was washing in, they had been notably weak to publicity.

Whereas we targeted on seen oiling, researchers dug into the extra profound impacts. Research on Seaside Sparrows, Frequent Loons, and Brown Pelicans confirmed how even low-level publicity might have an effect on respiration, metabolism, and long-term well being. As a result of birds preen continually, even a small quantity of oil can result in ingestion, which might trigger inside harm and power circumstances over time. Groups from Louisiana State College, College of Louisiana at Lafayette, and others labored to know these long-term results.

KM: What had been a number of the most hanging observations you made within the first few weeks or months after the spill?

EJ: One second that caught with me was seeing a Ruddy Turnstone that had been badly oiled. Regardless of its situation, it might nonetheless fly—simply sufficient to remain out of attain of anybody attempting to assist. I watched it wrestle, ultimately touchdown within the marsh the place it grew to become fully inaccessible. I used to be possibly ten ft away, however I might do nothing. Conditions like that stick with you.

There was additionally a wierd emotional pressure to the work. On one hand, birding brings loads of pleasure—it’s peaceable, rewarding, and even therapeutic. However through the spill response, going out to look at birds meant understanding you’d doubtless see animals injured or struggling long-term results from oil publicity. That made the entire expertise emotionally advanced. It was a tricky steadiness—attempting to remain targeted on the information whereas additionally processing the fact of what we had been witnessing.

And it wasn’t simply me. Dozens of volunteers willingly put themselves in that very same place. They had been on the market, day after day, observing the birds they beloved whereas additionally having to doc the harm. It was extremely disturbing at occasions, and I enormously respect the individuals who do this sort of work below these circumstances.

KM: What function did oil-covered habitats, like marshlands and seashores, play in shedding or disrupting chook populations?

Within the quick aftermath, closely oiled areas skilled widespread vegetation die-off. One clear instance was Cat Island in Barataria Bay—a small mangrove island that had lengthy been a nesting website for Brown Pelicans and different coastal birds. The island had already been deteriorating for years, however the oil spill successfully delivered the ultimate blow. The mangroves died, and with no root construction to carry the sediment in place, storms ultimately washed the island away. It had nesting pelicans in 2010; by 2011, it was gone.

It’s price noting that the lack of marsh habitat wasn’t simply momentary in lots of circumstances—it was everlasting. Within the Mississippi River Delta, the place sediment provide has been lower off, nothing is rebuilding these eroded shorelines. As soon as that vegetation dies and the land washes away, it’s gone. And that’s a part of the damage that BP was in the end held accountable for and why a lot of the settlement funding has gone towards coastal restoration.

The oil spill acted as an accelerant to present environmental threats in Gulf Coast ecosystems. Many threats to chook populations—like habitat loss—had been already in movement on account of sea degree rise, subsidence, and diminished sediment. However the spill sped issues up dramatically. Cat Island, for instance, was eroding, however the oil killed its mangroves and hastened its collapse inside a season.

Marsh edges noticed the identical impact. With out vegetation, erosion accelerated—land which may’ve lasted a decade was gone in months. And as land disappears sooner, close by habitats and nesting websites are put at even higher danger.

In that sense, the spill didn’t simply add to the harm—it compounded it. It pushed an already burdened system nearer to the sting. For chook populations that depend upon wholesome, intact coastal habitat, it meant higher strain on nesting, roosting, and foraging areas. It additionally accelerated the urgency round coastal restoration efforts. In a panorama that’s already disappearing, the spill was each a literal and figurative insult to damage.

KM: What efforts have been revamped the previous 15 years to revive chook habitats within the Gulf of Mexico? What has been profitable, and the place is there nonetheless room for enchancment?

EJ: Over the previous 15 years, BP settlement funds have fueled main restoration throughout the Gulf, with birds as one of many funding focus areas. Most bird-specific {dollars} have now been spent—and lots of the outcomes converse for themselves.

Initiatives like Queen Bess Island, Rabbit Island, and shortly Chandeleur and Terrebonne Houma Navigation Canal islands have restored a number of the most necessary colonial nesting websites within the Western Hemisphere. Queen Bess, for instance, noticed pelicans return virtually instantly after restoration—sooner than anticipated and in massive numbers. That’s exactly what NRDA {dollars} had been meant to do: deliver again what was misplaced.

Past the tasks explicitly funded for birds, there’s additionally been a broad vary of habitat restoration efforts that not directly profit chook populations. The River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project, for example, isn’t a seabird habitat. Nonetheless, it performs a key function in strengthening the broader estuary system—benefiting species that depend on coastal forested wetlands. There have been a number of barrier island restoration efforts throughout the Gulf coast. These tasks assist stabilize land, present larger elevation nesting areas, and create essential habitat for species like Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers.

There’s nonetheless work to do—particularly round long-term stewardship and monitoring—however the good points have been significant, measurable, and lasting.

KM: Given the anniversary, how do you view the broader implications of the BP oil spill on environmental insurance policies associated to grease drilling, habitat safety, and conservation of endangered species?

EJ: One of many largest shifts after the BP oil spill was the overhaul of offshore vitality oversight. The Minerals Administration Service was changed by the Bureau of Vitality Administration (BOEM) in 2010—a transfer broadly seen as a step ahead in regulating offshore vitality tasks extra responsibly.

Since then, BOEM has led efforts to develop offshore wind within the Gulf, figuring out 14 potential wind vitality areas in federal waters. Their course of has been deliberate and clear, with sturdy environmental evaluations that contemplate all the things from seabird distributions to endangered species impacts. They’ve additionally welcomed public enter and included that suggestions into their planning.

From a conservation standpoint, the shift towards renewables—if carried out responsibly—advantages birds in every single place. Local weather change is already having measurable results on chook populations, even in distant locations just like the Amazon, the place species are bodily altering in response to shifting circumstances. So, whereas offshore wind improvement comes with its personal challenges, the long-term advantage of lowering our carbon footprint is essential.

The oil spill uncovered severe gaps in offshore allowing and regulation—a number of the unique Deepwater Horizon permits, for instance, referenced species like walruses that don’t even stay within the Gulf, displaying simply how outdated and disconnected the system had develop into. The creation of BOEM and the reforms that adopted have been an necessary a part of addressing these failures and setting the next normal for future vitality improvement.

Finally, we help well-sited wind tasks. Cautious planning—particularly on the subject of the place and the way infrastructure is constructed—is crucial. However this broader transfer towards a diversified, U.S.-based, and responsibly managed vitality system is likely one of the extra significant long-term outcomes of the spill and its aftermath.

KM: How optimistic are you about the way forward for chook populations within the Gulf area as we sit up for the following 15 years?

EJ: I’m fairly optimistic in regards to the subsequent 15 years for Gulf Coast birds. Main investments in restoring habitat—barrier islands, nesting websites, stewardship— is paying off for species like Brown Pelicans, Least Terns, and Royal Terns. Black Skimmers are nonetheless a priority, however now we’ve the information to trace and prioritize these declines—one thing we didn’t have in 2010.

The larger-scale restoration work additionally offers me hope. Initiatives just like the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion and River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp are essential. Reconnecting the Mississippi River to its delta is how we help long-term habitat for birds and different wildlife. We’ve already seen that in locations like West Bay and Wax Lake Outlet—the place river reconnection has led to new deltas forming and supporting thriving chook colonies.

So the 15-year outlook feels encouraging. The larger fear is the long-term—50 or 100 years from now—with sea-level rise and continued land loss. However in comparison with the place we had been in 2010, we’ve obtained higher instruments, higher information, and actual momentum. That’s place to be.

KM: Anything so as to add?

EJ: One of many actually highly effective outcomes of the spill is how a lot scholar studying and profession improvement it sparked. The technology that got here of age throughout or simply after the spill, had decisions to make about what sort of future they needed. And in loads of circumstances, this occasion helped form these paths.

The funding that adopted created actual alternatives—for undergrads, grasp’s college students, Ph.D. candidates. I’d like to know what number of superior levels have been earned via finding out the Gulf since 2010. It should be within the 1000’s. The spill and its aftermath impressed a technology of conservation scientists, land managers, and coverage leaders.

It also created jobs—not simply in conservation, however metropolis planning, engineering, restoration, and water administration. There’s that stat that water administration in southeast Louisiana now outpaces oil and gasoline, and it’s actual. This work has financial weight behind it.

A few of that comes from funding, however quite a bit comes from individuals—bringing ardour, expertise, and new concepts. The delta is in disaster, and the state is investing greater than ever to repair it. That funding means jobs and long-term careers.

One of many extra underappreciated legacies of the oil spill is the way it seeded this complete technology of execs devoted to restoring and defending the Gulf. And we’re a part of that—as a result of individuals paid consideration when it mattered.