{"id":934353,"date":"2026-10-20T00:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934353\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T00:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:48:11","slug":"sea-life-declined-in-gulf-of-mexico-in-years-after-bp-oil-spill-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934353\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea life declined in Gulf of Mexico in years after BP oil spill, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers focused on the ocean’s \u201ctwilight zone,\u201d a vast area above the seafloor, where much of the surface marine life, including dolphins and whales, feast on creatures. Yet little is known about this gigantic ecosystem, and this region of the Gulf had not been studied before the 2010 spill, said study lead author Tracey Sutton, a biological oceanographer at Nova Southeastern University.<\/p>\n

A 2011 post-spill exploration cited in the research, which used six sets of nets at different depths and acoustic sonar, gave scientists a good sense of how much sea life was in the area between the surface and 5,000 feet deep. They returned to the same place with the same equipment three-and-a-half years later and found sea life was between one-third and one-quarter of what it was in 2011. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw this big decline,\u201d Sutton said. \u201cThe question was then why? So we looked at all of the natural variables we thought could account for it, namely temperature, oxygen supply and food. None of those vary with the decline. The event that did was the oil spill. So we think that\u2019s the most likely cause of the decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers kept on sampling since 2015 and the low populations remained, with a slight rise in 2022 and 2023 that did not prove statistically significant or lasting, Sutton said.<\/p>\n

\"AA dead fish floats on a pool of oil off Louisiana in June 2010.Charlie Riedel \/ APDocumenting the decline<\/p>\n

Sutton’s team documented the population declines with three different lines of evidence: what they caught in the nets, what their acoustic sonar found and genetic studies showing the species losing genetic diversity because of inbreeding.<\/p>\n

A lot of marine life died instantly after the explosion, which killed 11 workers, and from nearly five months of leaking oil and gas. Those pollutants got stored in the eggs of survivors and subsequent generations of critters got more compromised and weaker, Sutton said.<\/p>\n

BP spokesperson Paul Takahashi said the accident \u201cforever changed\u201d the company: \u201cWe have made many changes intended to help prevent an event like this from ever happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe explosion killed 11 workers. A lot of marine life died instantly and from leaking oil in subsequent months. Gerald Herbert \/ AP<\/p>\n

Both the oil and the dispersants used to clean the spill hurt fish, but in different ways, said study co-author Isabel Romero, a chemical oceanographer at the University of South Carolina. Oil is more toxic and an overall threat, but the dispersant breaks the oil into smaller droplets, increasing the exposure of animals that live in the deeper water column, she said.<\/p>\n

Dispersants caused many problems, and new studies show that in future accidents, it would be better to avoid those chemicals and instead add agents that increase oil-munching microbes, said former National Science Foundation Director Rita Colwell, a University of Maryland environmental microbiologist who headed a 10-year, $500 million BP-funded program to study spill effects.<\/p>\n

Sutton said his team couldn\u2019t prove an exact causal link to the BP oil spill, but by eliminating the other possibilities and looking at the timing, it\u2019s logically clear that the spill caused the problem. <\/p>\n

The krill population dropped 72%. Lanternfish \u2014 odd fish with blue-green lights embedded over their bodies \u2014 are a third of what they used to be, Sutton said. The stunning but scary dragonfish \u2014 with sharp teeth, light organs and a lure attached to its head \u2014 also had big losses, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are foundational species,\u201d Sutton said. \u201cThey’re the things most things eat. So it’s no wonder that we had wholesale changes across the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers focused on the ocean’s \u201ctwilight zone,\u201d a vast area above the seafloor, where much of the surface…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-934353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}