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Title: Baffin Island experimental oil spill and dispersant studies. Hydrocarbon bioaccumulation and histopathological and biochemical responses in marine bivalve molluscs. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6310513

Infaunal bivalve molluscs from four bays at the BIOS experimental oil-spill site became contaiminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. A Lagomedio crude oil and the dispersant, Corexit 9527, were used in these field experiments. Based on chemical data, both Mya and Serripes depurated oil during the two-week post-spill period, in part through an in vivo biodegradation presumably by microbial activity in the guts of the animals. However, Serripes pregerentially retained the high-molucular-weight saturated hydrocarbon assemblage as well as the higher alkylated naphthalene, phenanthrene and dibenzothiophene compounds, whereas Mya depurated all hydrocarbon components although the water-soluble alkyl benzenes and naphthalenes were depurated somewhat faster. However, the deposit feeders continued to accumulate oil from the sediments, at least for the two weeks after the spill.

Research Organization:
National Ocean Service, Anchorage, AK (USA). Ocean Assessments Div.
OSTI ID:
6310513
Report Number(s):
PB-87-195145/XAB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English