INTRODUCTION Petroleum hydrocarbons resulting from oil spills threaten marine life around the world. Animals cover themselves in oil and ingest the contaminants while trying to clean themselves. The toxic effects of oil often cause the death of much of the surrounding life. Bioremediation offers an efficient solution for cleaning up oil spills. Pollutants are biologically degraded through complete mineralization of organic contaminants, transforming toxic wastes into harmless products such as carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and cellular proteins (Das & Chandran, 2010). While contaminants can be removed by physical means, this does not eliminate dangerous petroleum hydrocarbons. Bioremediation can clean up our oceans without producing harmful byproducts in a relatively cheap way and using minimal technology. HISTORY OF OIL SPILLS Although bioremediation can be used for many sources of contamination such as pesticides, gas sites, landfills and more, oil spills are a large source of pollution to our oceans. The environment is constantly polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons due to oil tanker accidents, offshore drilling, pipeline leaks, and cars whose oil washes down ocean drains when it rains (Margesin et al., 2007). In 1979, there was an offshore drilling spill on the Mexican coast that released 400,000 tons of oil. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill spilled over 14,000 tons of oil into Alaskan waters (Swannell et al., 1996). In 1991, Iraq intentionally “spilled” over 14 million tons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. In 2000, an oil spill occurred from pipelines in Guanabara Bay, releasing more than a thousand tons of oil. In November 2002, the Prestige sank to the ocean floor after finding bre...... middle of paper ......to oil-polluted beaches. Marine Pollution Bulletin 54: 1146-1161.Margesin R, Hammerle M, Tscherko D. 2007. Microbial activity and community composition during bioremediation of diesel oil-contaminated soil: effects of hydrocarbon concentration, fertilizer, and incubation time. Microbial Ecology 53: 259-269.Perez C, Velando A, Munilla I, Lopez-Alonso M, Oro D. 2007. Monitoring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollution in the marine environment after the Prestige oil spill using blood tests of seabirds. Environmental Science and Technology 42: 707-713. Sabean JAR, Scott DB, Lee K, Venosa AD. 2009. Monitoring oil spill bioremediation using marsh foraminifera as indicators. Marine Pollution Bulletin 59: 352-361. Swannell RPJ, Lee K, McDonagh M. 1996. Field evaluations of bioremediation of marine oil spills. Microbiological reviews 60: 342-365.