Saving Seafood

Sparkling waters hide some lasting harm from 2010 oil spill

April 20, 2020 — Ten years after a well blew wild under a BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and touching off the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, gulf waters sparkle in the sunlight, its fish are safe to eat, and thick, black oil no longer visibly stains the beaches and estuaries. Brown pelicans, a symbol of the spill’s ecological damage because so many dived after fish and came up coated with oil, are doing well.

But scientists who spent the decade studying the Deepwater Horizon spill still worry about its effects on dolphins, whales, sea turtles, small fish vital to the food chain, and ancient corals in the cold, dark depths.

The gulf’s ecosystem is so complex and interconnected that it’s impossible to take any single part as a measure of its overall health, said Rita Colwell, who has led the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Researchers complete Deepwater Horizon zone research

August 16, 2018 — An international team of researchers has completed a seven-year baseline study of fish populations in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The study, recently published in the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries, outlines the marine makeup of the gulf from the United States to Mexico and Cuba. According to the researchers, a lack of data has limited their abilities to fully understand the oil spill’s impact.

“Neither the fish nor oil spills know national boundaries,” said principal investigator Steve Murawski, professor at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. “Providing seamless data for the gulf as a whole is imperative if we are to prepare adequately for future oil spills.”

The research was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, which was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP to study the environmental impact of Deepwater Horizon.

Overall, oil contamination in fish from the northern gulf continues to decline, though no assessed areas were completely oil free.

During 12 separate research expeditions, marine biologists systematically caught 15,000 fish of 166 species from 343 locations. They divided the gulf into six zones, to help best differentiate population changes. The most notable decline since the disaster is of the red snapper and southern hake in the northern gulf, the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Sea Grant Pubs Focus on the Deepwater Horizon Impact on Gulf Fisheries

October 3, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

Two new oil spill science outreach publications have been released from the Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Team. They focus on fishery landing and disasters and the impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill on Gulf seafood.

The project is funded by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, an independent organization created in 2010 with funds from BP to support oil spill research in the Gulf.  It provides support to the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana and Texas) for an extension and outreach effort to increase the use of oil spill science by people whose livelihoods depend on a healthy Gulf.

Two recently released publications, Fisheries Landings and Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico and The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill’s Impact on Gulf Seafood, are the first for the five-state team.

“Understanding the value and use of fishery-dependent data, like landings, as well as fishery-independent research, such as the results emerging from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, is an important theme in this publication,” said Chris Hale, the Texas member of the Sea Grant Program.

Read the full release at the Gulf Seafood Institute

Gulf Oil Spill Science Outreach Answers Unanswered Questions

July 10, 2015 — Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, fishermen, visitors and residents of the Gulf coast are still filled with unanswered question about what exactly happened during the spill and the lingering effects. A new oil spill science outreach program now allows Gulf Sea Grant specialists to examine what types of information these target audiences need and develop tailor-made solutions providing answers to these unanswered questions.

With funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and administration by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Specialists from Florida to Texas are providing information through free seminars and publications.

“Last fall, the Outreach Team interviewed with more than 500 coastal residents and discovered that residents still had many questions about how the oil spill affected public health, the quality of the water, and the health of the plants and animals living in the Gulf,” said Christine Hale, Texas Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Specialist at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. “People are still concerned with the impacts of dispersants and oiling of habitats such as marshes and beaches.”

Read the full story from the Gulf Seafood Institute