Laboratory evidence for short and long-term damage to pink salmon incubating in oiled gravel

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:191312

Heintz, R; Rice, S ^[1]; Wiedmer, M ^[2]

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1. National Marine Fisheries Service, Juneau, AK (United States)
2. Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Anchorage, AK (United States)

Pink salmon, incubating in gravel contaminated with crude oil, demonstrated immediate and delayed responses in the laboratory at doses consistent with the concentrations observed in oiled streams in Prince William Sound. The authors incubated pink salmon embryos in a simulated intertidal environment with gravel contaminated by oil from the Exxon Valdez. During the incubation and emergence periods the authors quantified dose-response curves for characters affected directly by the oil. After emergence, fish were coded wire tagged and released, or cultured in netpens. Delayed responses have been observed among the cultured fish, and further observations will be made when coded wire tagged fish return in September 1995. The experiments have demonstrated that eggs need not contact oiled gravel to experience increased mortality, and doses as low as 17 ppb tPAH in water can have delayed effects on growth. A comparison of sediment tPAH concentrations from streams in Prince William Sound with these laboratory data suggests that many 1989 brood pink salmon were exposed to deleterious quantities of oil.

• OSTI ID: 191312
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
ALASKA
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
OIL SPILLS
PETROLEUM
SALMON
SENSITIVITY
TOXICITY
WATER POLLUTION