Response of coastal fishes to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

ABSTRACT: The ecosystem-level impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been largely unpredictable due to the unique setting and magnitude of this spill. We used a five-year (2006-2010) data set within the oil-affected region to explore acute consequences for early-stage survival of fish species inhabiting seagrass nursery habitat. Although many of these species spawned during spring-summer, and produced larvae vulnerable to oil-polluted water, overall and species-by-species catch rates were high in 2010 after the spill (1,989±220 fishes km-towed(-1) [μ ± 1SE]) relative to the previous four years (1,080±43 fishes km-towed(-1)). Also, several exploited species were characterized by notably higher juvenile catch rates during 2010 following large-scale fisheries closures in the northern Gulf, alth

SUBMITTER: Fodrie FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3130780 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature