GOM

According to a recent government-backed study, the health complications, injuries, and deaths suffered by dolphins in the Northern Gulf of Mexico since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill are largely sparked by petroleum exposure.

Ever since the BP Gulf oil spill of 2011, the incidence of cases of flesh-eating bacteria coming directly from the Gulf of Mexico has steadily increased. Bacteria such as Vibrio vulnificus are usually the primary cause of these emergency cases. The subsequent raging infections can spread so quickly that they often necessitate the amputation of a limb.