Scientific societies call on DOJ to fine BP for damage to wildlife from Deepwater Horizon spill, and to use fines to restore species and ecosystems
On April 20, the second anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, SCB, along with three other scientific societies (The Wildlife Society, Ornithological Council, and the Society for Ecological Restoration), asked the Department of Justice to seek fines for the loss of protected wildlife that was caused by the spill. The resulting funds could then be used for restoration of affected wildlife populations. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Gulf oil spill killed hundreds of federally-protected sea turtles, marine mammals, and thousands of similarly protected migratory birds, and did vast damage to other fish and marine and coastal resources. However, the Department of Justice has yet to seek fines or other relief for these violations of the Endangered Species Act and other federal wildlife laws.
The scientific societies urged the DOJ to seek fines under a 1988 provision that requires the fines to be directed to cooperative state and Federal efforts to conserve and recover endangered and threatened species. This could provide as much as $57 million for the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund in response to the documented deaths of sea turtles alone. Funds from oil spill fines allocated through the ESA’s Section 6 Cooperative Fund might also be used to help restore some of the listed and candidate plant species that were destroyed or adversely affected by the spill. Such broader restoration work is essential as wildlife and fish depend on healthy marine, littoral, and estuarial plants. The impacts of the spill on species and ecosystems may persist far into the future and might require hundreds of millions of dollars in restoration to correct the damage.
The full letter is here.
