In recent years, the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry has been negatively impacted by several disasters. Record–breaking hurricanes—Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike—demolished infrastructure such as fish houses, boats, and supplies. Photo Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
by Gulf Sea Grant Team and Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
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.
“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. Photo: Sea Grant
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.
In recent years, the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry has been negatively impacted by several disasters. Record–breaking hurricanes—Katrina and Rita in 2005—demolished infrastructure and caused devastation to both humans and natural resources. The extent of the damage is still being investigated. These disasters and their consequences have become significant in understanding fisheries, especially from a management perspective.
According to Hale, landings data is an important tool to help monitor change in the health of fish and shellfish populations over time. Landings alone cannot determine the cause of disaster impacts to fishery populations, other factors such as ocean currents, weather, and management actions must be considered.
Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, consumers still have concerns about whether Gulf seafood is safe to eat. Federal and state scientists tested more than 22,000 seafood samples during the oil spill and did not find a single sample where levels of chemicals from oil or dispersants were unsafe. Scientists continue to conduct studies to ensure that the seafood harvested from the Gulf is safe to eat.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill’s Impact on Gulf Seafood publication details results of federal, state and independent seafood testing after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It outlines how federal and state agencies closed waters to fishing during the oil spill and developed a plan to collect seafood samples and test them for chemicals found in oil and dispersant before reopening these areas.
Researchers dissect fish to look for evidence of Deepwater Horizon oil contamination, an example of fishery-indepen- dent data collection. Photo: USF/C-IMAGE
“Even five years after the oil spill questions still linger about the safety of Gulf seafood,” said Larissa Graham, a member of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Program, about seafood outreach published work. “We wanted to create a publication that explained how seafood was tested and what scientists found.”
During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, about 172 million gallons of Louisiana sweet crude oil spilled into Gulf of Mexico waters. In addition, a total of 1.84 million gallons of Corexit, a dispersant, was used to break up oil at the sea surface. “Scientists are still looking more closely at groups of people that eat more seafood than others to ensure that seafood is safe for these groups,” explained Graham.
The next series of work to be published by the team will focus on dispersants. In addition there are science seminars open to the public that the oil spill science outreach team is offering around the Gulf.
“The oil spill science outreach program allows Sea Grant specialists to find out what types of information target audiences want and develop tailor-made products for those audiences,” said Hale about the program. “It will take a long time for scientists to understand the impact Deepwater Horizon has had on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, but science is beginning to reveal some pieces of the puzzle.”
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