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Dispersants and the Gulf Food Chain

Over more than 12 weeks in 2010, BP’s well spewed nearly 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The company used more than 1.8 million gallons of dispersants – more than 770,000 gallons of it at the oil’s source on the ocean floor – to break up the oil into tiny droplets. Earlier research hadn’t found significant problems for the environment and marine life, but dispersants had never before been used a mile underwater or in such large amounts.

Microbes are too small for fish to eat. Ciliates, on the other hand, “graze” on microbes. Phytoplankton and cilates both get eaten by larger zooplankton, which are fodder for tiny crustaceans that, in turn, get eaten by small fish.

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