November 29, 2022 — More than a decade after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded into a lethal inferno that killed 11 and spilled more than 3 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, researchers piecing together its lasting impacts have found more profound damage than previously known — to one of the Gulf’s most important fish.
Testing wild mahi mahi, the team found for the first time that even low amounts of oil can cut survival rates in half within a week of exposure. The fish also stopped spawning for at least a month.
“Those are massive numbers,” said Martin Grossell, lead principal investigator for one of 12 research groups funded by the BP’s Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative and a professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School.
The findings were first published in September in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
In previous experiments, Grossell’s lab confirmed low levels of oil can damage the hearts, hearing and vision of young lab-bred mahi, impairing their fitness. The field work, done over three weeks in the northern Gulf of Mexico, now confirms that damage can be deadly, he said.
“It will lead to mortality in the wild where fish have to compete for resources and avoid predation,” he said. “So it’s a tougher life out there than it is in the lab.”
For drilling opponents, these findings and others provide more evidence to end Gulf oil exploration. The Biden administration has proposed expanding it and is now taking public comment on a new lease.