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Searching the Atlantic Ocean to measure effects from oil spill. (Photo: Ben McGlaughon/ECU)
Oil from BP Deepwater Horizon spill has entered the food web: study
UNITED STATES
Thursday, March 22, 2012, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
A new study confirms that oil from the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 has infiltrated the ocean’s food chain through zooplankton. In addition, the oil continued to enter the food web even after the well was capped.
Crude oil spurted into the Gulf for months at a rate of 53,000 barrels per day before the Macondo well was capped on 15 July 2010.
Zooplankton, tiny drifting animals in the ocean, are at the bottom of the food chain. They serve as sustenance for baby fish and shrimp and are thus useful to track oil contamination and pollutants as they enter the food chain. The team gathered samples of zooplankton from the Gulf of Mexico during August and September 2010.
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| Drs. David Kimmel (left) and Siddhartha Mitra are studying the effects of oil on the ocean food chain. (Photo: Cliff Hollis/ECU) |
Oil contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be used to determine its origin. The researchers identified the signature unique to the Deep Water Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Our research helped to determine a ‘fingerprint’ of the Deepwater Horizon spill -- something that other researchers interested in the spill may be able to use,” said Dr Siddhartha Mitra of Eastern Carolina University. “Furthermore, our work demonstrated that zooplankton in the Northern Gulf of Mexico accumulated toxic compounds derived from the Macondo well.”
The team found that the fingerprint of the oil spill was present in some zooplankton in the Gulf ecosystem at low levels, as much as a month after the leaking wellhead was capped, and that the extent of the contamination was erratic. Some zooplankton far from the spill was contaminated, whereas zooplankton in other locations, sometimes near the spill, appeared to show lower exposure to the oil-derived pollutants.
"Traces of oil in the zooplankton prove that they had contact with the oil and the likelihood that oil compounds may be working their way up the food chain,” said Dr Michael Roman of the University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Science.
The study was led by East Carolina University with researchers from the University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Science, Oregon State University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the US Geological Survey. The paper, “Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico,” was published in the February issue of Geographical Research Letters.
The team will follow up on its study to confirm if Deepwater Horizon oil compounds have made it to the North Carolina coastline since the spill.
Related article:
- Consortia gets USD 112.5 mln to study oil spill's effects on Mexican Gulf
By Natalia Real
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www.seafood.media
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