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USF study finds more sick fish in oil spill area than rest of Gulf of Mexico
Craig PittmanTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, January 14, 2012
A government-funded survey of the entire Gulf of Mexico last summer found more sick fish in the area of the 2010 oil spill than anywhere else, according to the top University of South Florida scientist in charge of the project.
"The area that has the highest frequency of fish diseases is the area where the oil spill was," said Steve Murawski, an oceanographer who previously served as the chief fisheries scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
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"We still are seeing sick fish offshore and the USF survey confirmed our findings of 2 to 5 percent of red snapper being affected," James Cowan, an oceanography professor at Louisiana State University, said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.
In addition, Cowan said, laboratory studies of those sick fish "are beginning to trickle out that show that chronic exposure to oil and dispersant causes everything from impacts to the genome to compromised immune systems. Similar findings ? are being found in shrimps and crabs in the same locations."
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There are signs the lesions may be spreading. According to Will Patterson of the University of South Alabama, "they're now showing up in fish being caught in the surf here in Alabama." Patterson said he plans to do some scientific sampling of the surf fish this coming week.
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Craig PittmanTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, January 14, 2012
A government-funded survey of the entire Gulf of Mexico last summer found more sick fish in the area of the 2010 oil spill than anywhere else, according to the top University of South Florida scientist in charge of the project.
"The area that has the highest frequency of fish diseases is the area where the oil spill was," said Steve Murawski, an oceanographer who previously served as the chief fisheries scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
...
"We still are seeing sick fish offshore and the USF survey confirmed our findings of 2 to 5 percent of red snapper being affected," James Cowan, an oceanography professor at Louisiana State University, said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.
In addition, Cowan said, laboratory studies of those sick fish "are beginning to trickle out that show that chronic exposure to oil and dispersant causes everything from impacts to the genome to compromised immune systems. Similar findings ? are being found in shrimps and crabs in the same locations."
...
There are signs the lesions may be spreading. According to Will Patterson of the University of South Alabama, "they're now showing up in fish being caught in the surf here in Alabama." Patterson said he plans to do some scientific sampling of the surf fish this coming week.
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