Abstract
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, impacts to bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in coastal areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) were well documented.1-5 Studies of live dolphins and necropsies of recovered carcasses within the DWH oil spill footprint confirmed lung injury and adrenal gland lesions consistent with known effects of oil or petroleum-associated compounds.1-3 Reproductive impacts were also studied in both live and dead dolphins, with a focus on the heaviest oiled coastal regions. For live animal studies, reproductive failure rates were evaluated for five years during and after the spill (2010–2015) in two NGOM bottlenose dolphin stocks exposed to DWH oil (Barataria Bay, LA, and Mississippi Sound, MS/AL).1,4 Pregnancy was determined from either ultrasound examinations during capture-release health assessments or endocrine evaluations of blubber tissue collected from dart biopsies. Follow-up photo-identification surveys of the two stocks were used to track the status of pregnant females and any associated neonate calves for a minimum of one year after the initial pregnancy detection. For all pregnant females tracked, individuals seen with a calf (reproductive success) and without one (reproductive failure) were recorded. The resulting estimated reproductive success rates for dolphins living in areas not impacted by the DWH oil spill (i.e., Sarasota Bay, FL; Indian River Lagoon, FL; and Charleston Harbor, SC) were three-fold higher than the reproductive success rates for both NGOM stocks within the DWH oil spill footprint. Results from the stranded animal studies showed that dead perinate dolphins in the oil spill footprint had a higher prevalence of atelectasis (88% vs. 15%), fetal distress (87% vs. 27%), and in utero pneumonia (65% vs 19%) compared to reference perinates.5 This indicates that most perinates died prior to or shortly after birth, experienced adverse conditions in utero, and most had in utero infections. Findings from both the live and dead animal studies confirmed low reproductive success from heavily oiled estuaries when compared with other populations. Follow-up studies are planned to begin in the summer of 2016 to better understand the potential recovery of dolphins in Barataria Bay and, by extension, other Gulf coastal regions impacted by the spill.
Acknowledgments
We greatly appreciate the efforts of the multi-institutional field teams involved in the acquisition of data. In particular, we thank Veronica Cendejas for technical and logistical assistance with ultrasound exams. This work was part of the Deepwater Horizon NRDA being conducted cooperatively among NOAA, other Federal and State Trustees and BP PLC.
* Presenting author
Literature Cited
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