Accidents during marine transport and offshore production facilities often are responsible for oil spills in the open sea. In few cases, these oil slicks drift towards the shore and further into the estuaries, which serve as an important spawning and nursing grounds for many fish species. This study examined the role of salinity in the uptake and accumulation of toxic PAH from crude oil in select somatic and reproductive organs of Tilapia mossambica. Our results showed significantly (ANOVA, p < 0.01) lower PAH solubility in higher salinity waters and its uptake by fish. The differences were largest with the low molecular weight (LMW) two (naphthalenes) and three (phenanthrene) ring compounds as compared with higher molecular weight (HMW) compounds such as pyrene (four ringed).

As a consequence of offshore drilling, used Water Based Drilling Muds (WBMs) are typically disposed off, by discharging into the sea; such a disposal does not fully eliminate the environmental hazards. Hence, in this study, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ringed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs i.e. naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, chrysene and benzo (a) pyrene) were determined from the WBMs and associated drill cuttings obtained from varying depths(viz. 150, 300 and 600 m) from three offshore wells present in East coast of India. In both WBMs and drill cuttings, concentration of naphthalene was maximum i.e. 81.59 ± 2.73 and 39.87 ± 2.40 mg/kg respectively, while benzo (a) pyrene was minimum i.e. 0.19 ± 0.07 and 0.12 ± 0.03 mg/kg respectively. The WBMs contained significantly (p < 0.05) higher PAH concentration than drill cuttings. The individual PAH concentration significantly (p < 0.01) increased with increasing depth in each well.

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