Sixteen Years Later, Gulf Birds are Still Recovering from Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010, more than 134 million gallons of oil gushed unabated into the Gulf for 87 days, impacting an estimated 93 species of birds, with government agencies estimating bird mortality numbers from between 50,000 to 100,000 lost birds. These numbers are more than statistics in a report, they represent  a significant shock to species already under stress.

Injured bird species included federally threatened and endangered species, like the Piping Plover, as well as other species of conservation concern, such as American Oystercatcher, Black Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Wilson's Plover, Dunlin, Reddish Egret, and Sandwich, Common and Gull-billed Terns. These impacts were spread over a wide variety of habitats birds use for nesting, foraging, and migrating, including wetlands, beaches, barrier islands, and marshes. Many other threatened or endangered bird species in the Gulf region escaped injury from the spill but are still facing significant challenges in the region, including the Whooping Crane, Black Rail, Red Knot, and Roseate Tern.

Some 16 years after the disaster, restoration is still underway, even as habitats and wildlife remain at risk from a myriad of threats including habitat loss, extractive activities, and adverse effects from changing environmental conditions. Restoration is making significant progress to address the impacts of the BP disaster on birds, but there is more to do. When stress is compounded on a species already in decline, acknowledging catastrophe and moving on is not an option. Every injury counts. Every lost breeding season erases ground that may take years—if not decades—to regain. And for species facing significant population loss, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

But there are many bright spots for birds. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process—funded through an $8.8 billion settlement reached with BP in 2016—channeled resources into large-scale restoration work across all five Gulf states. Many of these projects deliver significant benefits to injured bird species.

Queen Bess Island in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay is a powerful example of what successful restoration for birds looks like. The island, which eroded to fewer than five acres of suitable nesting habitat, received oil spill funding to expand the island to 37 acres of prime nesting ground for Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns, and Sandwich Terns. By 2023, nearly 30,000 birds were counted on the island and 6,000 Brown Pelican nests were recorded—double the numbers from 2010.

Even as restoration shows promising results for addressing impacts to bird species injured in the spill, efforts can not let up. Brown Pelicans were delisted from the ESA in 2009—just five months before Deepwater Horizon set their recovery back. That near-miss underscores a critical lesson for Gulf restoration and helps explain why stories like the recovery of Queen Bess Island are so compelling. Species that have climbed back from the edge are not immune to ongoing threats. A continued commitment to recovery—and to the habitats birds rely on—remains one of the defining conservation challenges of our lifetime.

Sixteen years may seem like a long time to still be shaped by a single event, but it is not long at all when restoring habitats and the birds that depend on them. Diligence in the Gulf remains essential to protecting wildlife species in the decades to come.