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.
Posts
