Sensitivity of fish embryos to weathered crude oil: Part I. Low‐level exposure during incubation causes malformations, genetic damage, and mortality in larval pacific herring ( Clupea pallasi)

Abstract Pacific herring eggs were exposed for 16 d to weathered Alaska North Slope crude oil. Exposure to an initial aqueous concentration of 0.7 parts per billion (ppb) polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) caused malformations, genetic damage, mortality, and decreased size and inhibited swimmi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Main Authors: Carls, Mark G., Rice, Stanley D., Hose, Jo Ellen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 1999
Subjects:
Pacific
Alaska North Slope
north slope
Pink salmon
Alaska
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/etc.5620180317
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fetc.5620180317
https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/etc.5620180317
Description
Summary:Abstract Pacific herring eggs were exposed for 16 d to weathered Alaska North Slope crude oil. Exposure to an initial aqueous concentration of 0.7 parts per billion (ppb) polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) caused malformations, genetic damage, mortality, and decreased size and inhibited swimming. Total aqueous PAH concentrations as low as 0.4 ppb caused sublethal responses such as yolk sac edema and immaturity consistent with premature hatching. Responses to less weathered oil, which had relatively lower proportions of high molecular weight PAH, generally paralleled those of more weathered oil, but lowest observed effective concentrations (LOECs) were higher (9.1 ppb), demonstrating the importance of composition. The LOEC for more weathered oil (0.4 ppb) was similar to that observed in pink salmon (1.0 ppb), a species with a very different development rate; by inference, other species may be similarly sensitive to weathered oil. Our methods simulated conditions observed in Prince William Sound (PWS) following the Exxon Valdez oil (EVO) spill. Biological effects were identical to those observed in embryolarval herring from PWS in 1989 and support the conclusion that EVO caused significant damage to herring in PWS. Previous demonstration by our laboratory that most malformed or precocious larvae die corroborates the decreased larval production measured after the spill.

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