Shoreline Oiling Conditions in Prince William Sound Following the <i>Exxon Valdez</i> Oil Spill

Neff, Jerry M.; Owens, E H; Stoker, SW; McCormick, DM

doi:10.1520/stp19869s

Cited by 83 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Along the spill trajectory in WPWS, bays and shorelines oriented between north and east were subjected to high oil exposure and persistence ( Fig. 1), while more distant shores or those with different orientation may have received little or no oiling (Neff et al 1995). Exposure to oil and sea otter mortality in 1989 were particularly high along the shores of the northern Knight Island archipelago in WPWS (Figs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea otter population status and the process of recovery from the 1989 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Bodkin¹,

Ballachey²,

Dean³

et al. 2002

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

100

113

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea otter population status and the process of recovery from the 1989 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Bodkin¹,

Ballachey²,

Dean³

et al. 2002

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

100

113

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“…Heavy oiling was much more concentrated in Prince William Sound. The shoreline assessment conducted by Exxon using aerial videotape suggested even greater lengths of oiled shoreline, including over 500 miles in Prince William Sound (Neff et al 1995). Intensive treatment of oiled shorelines applied to displace and remove the oil from the intertidal zone took place in summers of 1989 to 1991 with some further work in spring 1992.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling design begets conclusions: the statistical basis for detection of injury to and recovery of shoreline communities after the 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Peterson¹,

McDonald²,

Green³

et al. 2001

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The joint effect of multiple initial decisions made about sampling design in evaluation of environmental impacts using observational field assessments influences the ability to detect and accurately estimate responses. The design can dictate in advance whether the study can identify even large impacts that truly exist. Following the 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill in 1989, 4 separate studies of effects of the spill on the intertidal biota were conducted. Studies overlapped sufficiently in geographic area, shoreline habitat, and biological response variables to permit contrasts showing how the aggregate of multiple design decisions led to differences in conclusions. The SEP (Shoreline Ecology Program) supported by Exxon and the CHIA (Coastal Habitat Injury Assessment) funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council shared a core approach of establishing a stratified random design of site selection. The Exxon-supported GOA (Gulf of Alaska) study and the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) Hazmat (Hazardous Materials) study both chose to employ subjective choices of fixed sites. Despite many common goals, these 4 studies differed greatly in: (1) sampling effort (area covered per sample quadrat, sample replication within sites, numbers of study sites per category, numbers of samplings, and total areas sampled) and sampling design (philosophy of targeting sampling effort, complete randomization versus matched pair designs, sampling frame, treatment of habitat heterogeneity within sites, interspersion of sites, and control of shoreline treatment and oiling intensity); (2) analytical methodology (analysis of covariance versus paired designs, treatment of subsamples as replicates in F-ratios, logic of inferring recovery, and power calculations); and (3) choice of biological response variables (taxonomic level of analysis, aggregating versus splitting separate communities, and scope of communities and habitats examined). The CHIA and NOAA Hazmat studies of epibiotic responses in sheltered rocky shores of Prince William Sound made several decisions to enhance detection power and produced similar conclusions about large reductions in total biotic cover of intertidal space, Fucus cover, mussel abundance, abundance of the limpet Tectura persona and a balanoid barnacle, and increases in open space and abundance of an opportunistic barnacle, Chthamalus dalli. In contrast, the SEP study of this same habitat and geographic region adopted design choices resulting in lower power of detection in 12 (vs CHIA and vs NOAA Hazmat) of 15 separate decisions (with one tie in each contrast). Accordingly, the SEP study was able to detect declines only in Fucus cover and occasionally in total limpet abundance but not in total epifaunal or mussel or balanoid barnacle abundance and, unlike the results of the other 2 studies, most of the taxa analyzed showed apparent increases rather than decreases from oiling and shoreline treatment. The more powerful GOA and CHIA studies of impacts of oiling in the Gulf of Ala...

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“…An estimated 40% of the oil initially came ashore in western Prince William Sound [1]. About 800 km of the roughly 5,000 km of shoreline in Prince William Sound was oiled to various degrees of intensity and continuity, with the most heavily oiled shorelines on islands in the western sound [2,3]. Shoreline oiling was classified according to its width and ranged from ''heavy'' (Ͼ6 m wide or Ն50% coverage) to ''very light'' (Ͻ10% coverage) [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the summer of 1990 bulk oil on surface rocks and sediment had largely disappeared. Visibly oiled shorelines decreased to 420 km because of natural cleansing by winter storms and cleanup [3]. As of 1993 the visibly oiled shorelines had decreased to 14 km, with over 90% in the very light category [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization of mussel beds with residual oil and the risk to foraging wildlife 4 years after the Exxon valdez oil spill

Boehm

Mankiewicz

Reilly

et al. 1996

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Abstract-The grounding of the Exxon Valdez on March 24, 1989, released about 41 million L of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, and oiled about 16% of the Prince William Sound shoreline to various degrees. Although winter storms, cleanups, and natural biodegradation have removed the majority of the oil on the shorelines, some residual oil still remains trapped in sediments immediately below mussel beds. This oil was protected from wave action by the dense covering of mussels. Field surveys found that mussels in such beds constituted less than 3% of the mussels available for foraging in two areas that had been extensively oiled in 1989. Levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these mussels were also measured. Mean PAH concentrations in mussel tissues ranged between 20 and 4,000 ng/g dry weight and in sediments between 20 and 26,000 ng/g dry weight. Assuming that the species considered most at risk (i.e., harlequin ducks, black oystercatchers, and sea otters) consumed the mussel proportion of their diets exclusively from such beds (at either the median or 95th percentile of mussel tissue PAH concentration), the estimated PAH dosage they would receive was one to three orders of magnitude below doses known to cause sublethal effects in surrogate species. Considering the low frequency of mussel beds with residual oil, the patchy distribution of remaining weathered oil residues, and the relatively low PAH concentrations in the mussels, the risk of quantifiable injury at the level of an individual bird or otter, or at the population level, is minimal. Furthermore, based on a review of the mussel PAH data in Prince William Sound, the risk to wildlife has been minimal since 1990, 1 year after the spill.

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Shoreline Oiling Conditions in Prince William Sound Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Cited by 83 publications

References 12 publications

Sea otter population status and the process of recovery from the 1989 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Sea otter population status and the process of recovery from the 1989 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Sampling design begets conclusions: the statistical basis for detection of injury to and recovery of shoreline communities after the 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill

Characterization of mussel beds with residual oil and the risk to foraging wildlife 4 years after the Exxon valdez oil spill

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