Award: OCE-1047693

Award Title: RAPID Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Impact of sub-surface oil plumes on mesopelagic micronekton
Funding Source: NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
Program Manager: David L. Garrison

Outcomes Report

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drilling rig resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, releasing more than 4.5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in only 86 days. The spill occurred under a unique set of circumstances: the broken well-head was deep (>1.1 km below the sea surface), chemical dispersants were released at depth, and several sub-surface plumes of oil were detected, some of which persisted for months without substantial biodegradation. We measured chemical indicators of oil exposure in deep-living fish and shrimp species that may have either encountered oil in the subsurface plumes, or ingested contaminated prey because of their daily migrations from deep waters to or near the surface ocean at night, and back again to depth (about 600 m) during the day. Samples of fish and shrimp were collected using trawls fishing from the surface to 1000 m in the DeSoto Canyon, a deep marine canyon adjacent to the Deepwater Horizon well. We looked for evidence of oil exposure by chemically comparing specimens collected prior to, six weeks after, and one year after the oil spill (2007, 2010, and 2011). We found evidence of exposure to oil in the deep-sea fauna, and incorporation of trace amounts of oil into the deep-sea food chain. Our written results will be reported in the technical scientific literature, and have been reported at scholarly meetings as well as at conferences on oil spill impacts. Participants in the project included a large number of university students, faculty, and staff, a representative of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a K-12 educator, journalists, and photographers. Preliminary findings were reported in the Saint Petersburg Times, on the USF College of Marine Science website, and on local Bay News 9 news reports. Last Modified: 11/14/2013 Submitted by: Joseph J Torres

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People

Principal Investigator: Joseph J. Torres (University of South Florida)

Co-Principal Investigator: David J Hollander