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Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, larval settlement in Mississippi
Citation:
Fulford, R., R. Griffit, N. Brown-Peterson, H. Perry, AND G. Sanchez-Rubio. Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, larval settlement in Mississippi. Chapter 13, Impacts of Oil Spill Disasters on Marine Habitats and Fisheries and North America. CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, Boca Raton, FL, , 253-268, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
Rapid assessment of the impacts of the oil spill on blue crab recruitment in the summer of 2010
Description:
The largest accidental release of crude oil in history occurred in the north-central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) between April 20 and July 15, 2010 (Alford et al., this volume). The DWH spill was unprecedented due to both its magnitude (>600,000 metric tons released) and its occurrence in deeper offshore waters (>1000 m), where the fate of oil is not well understood. Regardless of the debate on the fate of subsurface oil (OSAT 2010), the observed surface slick measured approximately 10,000 km2 at its maximum extent and was highly likely to have had an impact on near surface planktonic larvae, such as C. sapidus, that are typically present in offshore surface waters of the GOM between March and October (Figure 13.1) (Sulkin and VanHeukelem 1986). The C. sapidus fishery in the GOM was valued at more than $45 million in 2009 and is the fourth largest fishery in the GOM in terms of value (National Marine Fisheries Service landings data; st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/commercial/index.html). An understanding of oil spill effects on C. sapidus recruitment may have economic implications. More generally, the effects of the DWH spill on C. sapidus larval survival are a potentially important indicator of both impacts of surface oil on invertebrate larvae and effects of the DWH spill on future fishery production.
