Exposure of cetaceans to petroleum products following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Dias, Laura Aichinger; Litz, Jenny A.; Garrison, Lance P.; Martinez, Anthony; Barry, Kevin P.; Speakman, Todd

doi:10.3354/esr00770

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Early behavioral studies conducted with captive cetaceans indicated that they were able to detect and actively avoid oil slicks on the surface of the water (Smith et al 1983, Geraci 1990). However, observations in actual spills in the marine environment have demonstrated that larger whales (both mysticetes and odontocetes) and smaller delphinids do not avoid oil, with observations of animals traveling through and feeding in oil slicks (Grose & Mattson 1977, Goodale et al 1979, Matkin et al 1994, Smultea & Wursig 1995, Aichinger Dias 2017.…”

Section: Marine Mammals and Oil Spillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine mammal response operations during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Wilkin¹,

Rowles²,

Stratton³

et al. 2017

Endang. Species. Res.

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When the Mississippi Canyon-252 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill occurred in April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, wildlife professionals were quickly mobilized to assess, recover, and treat oiled marine mammals as part of the Incident Response operating under the Unified Command. There were significant challenges associated with the crisis, including the sustained response to a prolonged, uncontrolled oil release (from a deepwater wellhead rather than a controllable and finite source like a tanker); the large geographic scale of the oiled area and thus the response effort; and ensuring effectiveness without the benefit of previous experience of cetacean response in oil spills. The response phase for this spill lasted from April 2010 to May 2011, and the mobilization of field teams resulted in the confirmation of 13 live and 178 dead stranded cetaceans across 4 states and offshore waters. Four primary care centers were coordinated to de-oil animals, and additional facilities and personnel were mobilized to augment and support the effort. Numerous protocols were implemented to ensure appropriate animal care as well as documentation and sample collection, informing both response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment decisions. Additional efforts included the implementation of a wildlife observer program integrated into oil recovery operations (skimming and in situ burns) and behavioral observations of nearshore cetaceans. The unprecedented effort resulted in the first rehabilitation of an oiled dolphin and the coordination of a very large-scale response, with important information collected, and lessons learned for future oil spills in marine mammal habitat.

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Section: Marine Mammals and Oil Spillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine mammal response operations during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Wilkin¹,

Rowles²,

Stratton³

et al. 2017

Endang. Species. Res.

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“…Within this footprint, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages this protected species as 11 "biologically meaningful stocks": nine resident stocks within each of the bay, sound, and estuarine (BSE) bodies of water along the coastline (from Terrebonne and Timbalier Bays in Louisiana to St. Andrews Bay, FL), and two coastal stocks that typically range from the coastline to the 20 m-isobath (the GoM Northern Coastal Stock and the GoM Western Coastal Stock; Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees, 2016). During the spill, BSE and coastal dolphins (in addition to continental shelf and oceanic stocks/species) were observed swimming in DWH oil slicks (Aichinger-Dias et al, 2017), putting them at risk of inhaling and aspirating toxic airborne and waterborne oil constituents (Takeshita et al, 2017). In the years during and following the spill, over 1,000 cetaceans (mostly common Bottlenose Dolphins) stranded dead along the northern GoM coastline, resulting in the largest unusual mortality event on record in the northern GoM (Litz et al, 2014;Venn-Watson et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Species-level Summariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous previous investigations have evaluated the direct effects of DWH oiling and indirect effects of response measures on various coastal and nearshore biota including microbial communities (Kostka et al, 2011), marsh vegetation (Hester et al, 2016), marsh invertebrates (e.g., McCall and Pennings, 2012;Mishra et al, 2012;Silliman et al, 2012;Brunner et al, 2013;Pennings et al, 2014Pennings et al, , 2016Rozas et al, 2014;Fleeger et al, 2015Fleeger et al, , 2018Deis et al, 2017;Powers et al, 2017a;Zengel et al, 2017), nearshore decapods and fishes (Fodrie and Heck, 2011;Moody et al, 2013;Fodrie et al, 2014;van der Ham and de Mutsert, 2014;Able et al, 2015;Zengel et al, 2016;Martin, 2017), terrestrial and coastal bird populations (Haney et al, 2014;Walter et al, 2014;Bonisoli-Alquati et al, 2016;Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees, 2016), and marine turtles and mammals (Lane et al, 2015;Venn-Watson et al, 2015a;Aichinger-Dias et al, 2017;Kellar et al, 2017;Smith et al, 2017;Wallace et al, 2017;Frasier et al, 2020). Syntheses of ecological outcomes of DWH were initiated within 1 year of the spill, and have been published intermittently FIGURE 1 | (A) Geographic footprint of surface oil expression [number of "oil days" i.e., days oil was present at each pixel of the oil surface multiplied by the relative oil thickness (Murawski et al, 2014)] and shoreline oiling relative co...…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Synthesis of Deepwater Horizon Impacts on Coastal and Nearshore Living Marine Resources

et al. 2021

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The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, originating in the deep sea 66 km off the Louisiana coast. By early June, DWH oil had spread to coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. An estimated 2,113 km of shoreline were oiled, making DWH the largest marine oil spill in global history by length of affected shoreline. Additionally, a series of oil spill response measures were deployed, including diversions of Mississippi River discharge to forestall oil coming ashore, and the establishment of large-scale fishery closures, with both affecting coastal resources to varying degrees. Here, we review published studies and describe additional analyses evaluating long-term impacts of DWH on coastal/nearshore biological resources. We assembled time-series data collected by state, federal and academic partners on population abundance and environmental conditions to evaluate species and community change. Our study focused on plankton, invertebrates, fishes and dolphins, and 13 “key species” were selected to conduct semi-quantitative vulnerability-resilience (V-R) analyses. At one extreme, early life stages of Gulf Menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) were not affected due to seasonal spawning and larval development preceding the spill. In contrast, demographically independent populations of the common Bottlenose Dolphin, (Tursiops truncatus) suffered a variety of severe and ongoing health effects owing to oil exposure. Virtually all of the heavily oiled salt marsh habitat was in Louisiana, with the majority occurring in Barataria Bay. Multispecies trawl survey abundances declined post-DWH throughout eastern coastal Louisiana but remained stable elsewhere. A regime shift in composition of Barataria Bay trawl survey catches occurred during and following the spill, the persistence of which was associated with long-term reductions in average salinity and increases in water clarity. In some cases, fishery closures were associated with measurable but ephemeral increases in abundance of some targeted and bycatch species. Freshwater flooding of marshes was ineffective in preventing coastal oiling and severely affected benthic euryhaline resources including Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) and Marsh Periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata). The flooding response measure experiment also indicates the directionality of impacts that further planned water diversions may have on ecological communities of lower Mississippi River basins.

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“…Aerial surveys of cetaceans indicated individuals swam near surface oil but rarely in the slicks (Sorensen et al 1984). Following the DWH oil spill 13 species of cetaceans were observed to swim through petroleum contaminated waters, causing petroleum to be adhered to the epidermis (Dias et al 2017). These included Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), bottlenose dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata), pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus), rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), and clymene dolphin (Stenella clymene) (Dias et al 2017).…”

Section: Behavioural Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of petroleum toxicity and identifying common endpoints for future research on diluted bitumen toxicity in marine mammals

2021

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Large volumes of conventional crude oil continue to be shipped by sea from production to consumption areas across the globe. In addition, unconventional petroleum products also transverse pelagic habitats; for example, diluted bitumen from Canada’s oilsands which is shipped along the Pacific coast to the United States and Asia. Therefore, there is a continuing need to assess the toxicological consequences of chronic and catastrophic petroleum spillage on marine wildlife. Peer-reviewed literature on the toxicity of unconventional petroleum such as diluted bitumen exists for teleost fish, but not for fauna such as marine mammals. In order to inform research needs for unconventional petroleum toxicity we conducted a comprehensive literature review of conventional petroleum toxicity on marine mammals. The common endpoints observed in conventional crude oil exposures and oil spills include hematological injury, modulation of immune function and organ weight, genotoxicity, eye irritation, neurotoxicity, lung disease, adrenal dysfunction, metabolic and clinical abnormalities related to oiling of the pelage, behavioural impacts, decreased reproductive success, mortality, and population-level declines. Based on our findings and the body of literature we accessed, our recommendations for future research include: 1) improved baseline data on PAH and metals exposure in marine mammals, 2) improved pre- and post-spill data on marine mammal populations, 3) the use of surrogate mammalian models for petroleum toxicity testing, and 4) the need for empirical data on the toxicity of unconventional petroleum to marine mammals.

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Exposure of cetaceans to petroleum products following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Cited by 27 publications

References 6 publications

Marine mammal response operations during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Marine mammal response operations during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

A Synthesis of Deepwater Horizon Impacts on Coastal and Nearshore Living Marine Resources

Review of petroleum toxicity and identifying common endpoints for future research on diluted bitumen toxicity in marine mammals

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