April 16, 2020 — In the decade since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers from the University of South Florida have circled the Gulf of Mexico, catching fish and cutting them open in search of toxic pollution.
They found that the gulf is a “greasy place,” said Steve Murawski, a USF fisheries biologist. All of the 2,503 fish they studied showed traces of oil exposure, not to the level of being unsafe to eat but enough to raise questions about species’ long-term health, according to the study just published in Nature Scientific Reports.
The scientists looked for evidence of toxic hydrocarbons — compounds found in crude oil — and did not connect their results to the disaster specifically. Oil leaks into the gulf for many reasons, from natural seeps to river runoff and boating discharges. That makes it nearly impossible to track pollution in fish to a specific cause. But some findings suggest the spill had an effect, Murawski said.