Synthesis of long-term impacts to pink salmon following the Exxon Valdez oil spill: persistence, toxicity, sensitivity, and controversy

SENSITIVITY OF FISH EMBRYOS TO WEATHERED CRUDE OIL: PART II. INCREASED MORTALITY OF PINK SALMON (<i>ONCORHYNCHUS GORBUSCHA</i>) EMBRYOS INCUBATING DOWNSTREAM FROM WEATHERED <i>EXXON VALDEZ</i> CRUDE OIL

We incubated pink salmon embryos under three exposure conditions, direct contact with oil-coated gravel, effluent from oil-coated gravel, and direct contact with gravel coated with very weathered oil (VWO). Embryo mortalities and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) accumulation in embryo tissues during the direct-contact and effluent exposure experiments were not significantly different, ind...

Assessment of the genetic toxicological impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) may be confounded by the influence of hatchery fish.

Risk of weathered residual Exxon Valdez oil to pink salmon embryos in Prince William Sound.

It has been hypothesized that pink salmon eggs incubating in intertidal streams transecting Prince William Sound (PWS) beaches oiled by the Exxon Valdez oil spill were exposed to lethal doses of dissolved hydrocarbons. Since polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in the incubation gravel were too low to cause mortality, the allegation is that dissolved high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons (...

Impact of the Oil Spill on Juvenile Pink and Chum Salmon and Their Prey in Critical Nearshore Habitats

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on juvenile pink and chum salmon during their initial period of residency in nearshore marine habitats of western Prince William Sound. In oiled locations, both pink and chum salmon fry in the nearshore marine environment were contaminated by hydrocarbons in 1989, but not in 1990. Field observations and labora...

Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The ecosystem response to the 1989 spill of oil from the Exxon Valdez into Prince William Sound, Alaska, shows that current practices for assessing ecological risks of oil in the oceans and, by extension, other toxic sources should be changed. Previously, it was assumed that impacts to populations derive almost exclusively from acute mortality. However, in the Alaskan coastal ecosystem, unexpec...