Slow recovery of Barataria Bay dolphin health following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2013-2014), with evidence of persistent lung disease and impaired stress response

Endangered Species Research

Marina Ivančić¹  Eric S. Zolman¹  Randall S. Wells¹  Mandy C. Tumlin¹  Keith D. Mullin¹  Forrest I. Townsend¹  Leslie B. Hart¹  Brian C. Balmer¹  Brian Quigley¹  Qingzhong Wu¹  Tracy K. Collier¹  0¹  Jeffrey D. Adams¹  Wayne McFee¹  Lori H. Schwacke¹  Willie McKercher¹  Cynthia R. Smith¹  Teresa K. Rowles¹ 

关键词: Dolphin;    Health;    Oil;    Toxicology;    Pulmonary;    Stress;    Cortisol;    Prognosis;   

DOI  :  10.3354/esr00778

学科分类：动物科学

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster resulted in large-scale oil contamination of the northern Gulf of Mexico. As part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment designed to investigate the potential impacts of the DWH oil spill, comprehensive health assessments were conducted on bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus living in oiled bays (Barataria Bay [BB], Louisiana, and Mississippi Sound [MS], Mississippi/Alabama) and a reference bay with no evidence of DWH oil contamination (Sarasota Bay [SB], Florida). As previously reported, multiple health issues were detected in BB dolphins during 2011. In the present study, follow-on capture-release health assessments of BB dolphins were performed (2013, 2014) and indicated an overall improvement in population health, but demonstrated that pulmonary abnormalities and impaired stress response persisted for at least 4 yr after the DWH disaster. Specifically, moderate to severe lung disease remained elevated, and BB dolphins continued to release low levels of cortisol in the face of capture stress. The proportion of guarded or worse prognoses in BB improved over time, but 4 yr post-spill, they were still above the proportion seen in SB. Health assessments performed in MS in 2013 showed similar findings to BB, characterized by an elevated prevalence of low serum cortisol and moderate to severe lung disease. Prognosis scores for dolphins examined in MS in 2013 were similar to BB in 2013. Data from these follow-on studies confirmed that dolphins living in areas affected by the DWH spill were more likely to be ill; however, some improvement in population health has occurred over time.

【 授权许可】

Unknown