Heart Abnormalities Found In Fish Embryos Affected By Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

March 26, 2014

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster has been causing heart abnormalities in some large marine fish, according to research appearing Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

In the study, researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and colleagues from American and Australian universities say the 200 million gallons of petroleum that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the incident has caused severe defects in the developing hearts of tuna embryos.

The incident, which occurred between April and July 2010, “coincided with the spawning window for commercially and ecologically important species” including the yellowfin tuna and the Atlantic bluefin tuna – the latter of which is already one of the most threatened fish in the world, according to Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times.

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Gulf Killifish Show Defects from Crude Oil Exposure

Jacqueline Conciatore, National Science Foundation
Date: 22 May 2013 Time: 09:31 PM ET
This Research in Action article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

New research shows that a signal species of fish in the Gulf Coast was harmed by exposure to crude oil toxins nearly a year after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster occurred.

Using wire minnow traps, the researchers — from Louisiana State University, Clemson University and the University of California, Davis — collected Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) from oil-contaminated Grande Terre, La., and from reference sites in Mississippi and Alabama — sites that were not contaminated — during four trips between May 2010 and August 2011.

Analyses of the Grande Terre fish revealed abnormal gene expression in their liver and gill tissues. Furthermore, embryos that were exposed in the lab to Grande Terre sediments failed to hatch or were smaller and showed "poor vigor." The embryos also suffered edema, or excessive fluid buildup, around the heart and in the yolk sac.


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