Development of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) exposed to produced water during early life stages: Effects on embryos, larvae, and juvenile fish

Abstract

Produced water (PW) contains numerous toxic compounds of natural origin, such as dispersed oil, metals, alkylphenols (APs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In addition, PW also contains many different chemicals which have been added during the oil production process. In the study described here, cod were exposed to real PW collected from an oil production platform in the North Sea. This was done in order to best recreate the most realistic field-exposure regime in which fish will be affected by a wide range of chemicals. The biological effects found in this study therefore cannot be assigned to one group of chemicals alone, but are the result of exposure to the complex chemical mixture found in real PW. Since APs are well known to cause endocrine disruption in marine organisms, we focused our chemical analysis on APs in an attempt to better understand the long-term effects of APs from PW on the biology of fish. In this study, cod were exposed to several concentrations of real PW and 17β-oestradiol (E(2)), a natural oestrogen, at different developmental stages. Cod were exposed to PW either during the embryo and early larvae stage (up to 3 months of age) or during the early juvenile stage (from 3 to 6 months of age). Results showed that, in general, APs bioconcentrate in fish tissue in a dose and developmental stage dependent manner during PW exposure. However, juveniles appeared able to effectively metabolise the short chain APs. Importantly, PW exposure had no effect on embryo survival or hatching success. However, 1% PW clearly interfered with the development of normal larval pigmentation. After hatching most of the larvae exposed to 1% PW failed to begin feeding and died of starvation. This inability to feed may be linked to the increased incidence of jaw deformities seen in these larvae. In addition, cod exposed to 1% PW, had significantly higher levels of the biomarkers vitellogenin and CYP1A in plasma and liver, respectively. No similar effects were seen in cod exposed to either 0.1% or 0.01% PW.

Avoidance threshold to oil water‐soluble fraction by a juvenile marine teleost fish

“…As a result, measured PAH concentrations in that stock solution as well as in the various experimental dilutions were in line with reported values in similar experiments (Aas et al 2000;Meier et al 2010;Milinkovitch et al 2011Milinkovitch et al , 2012Sundt et al 2012). As a result, measured PAH concentrations in that stock solution as well as in the various experimental dilutions were in line with reported values in similar experiments (Aas et al 2000;Meier et al 2010;Milinkovitch et al 2011Milinkovitch et al , 2012Sundt et al 2012).…”

Comparative responses to endocrine disrupting compounds in early life stages of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar

“…cod (Gadus morhua) embryos and larvae exposed to produced oil discharge water and E2 exhibit higher mortality and impacts to fitness than in fish exposed as post-metamorphic juveniles (Meier et al, 2010). Similar life stage-dependent effects have been demonstrated in zebrafish (Brion et al, 2004), medaka (Koger et al, 2000), and fathead minnow (van Aerle et al, 2002).…”

Impact of Pulsed Direct Current on Embryos, Larvae, and Young Juveniles of Atlantic Cod and its Implications for Electrotrawling of Brown Shrimp

“…No significant differences in morphometric parameters between exposed and control organisms were found, indicating that growth rate was not affected by electric field exposure. Furthermore, exposed and control groups did not exhibit differences in the occurrence of morphometric changes, such as jaw deformities (which are known to prevent feeding; Tilseth et al 1984;Meier et al 2010), abnormal yolk resorption, increased incurvation, or deformations (e.g., lordosis and scoliosis).…”

“…In general, this developmental stage is known to be a bottleneck period in Atlantic Cod larviculture conditions, as failure to initiate and maintain sufficient feeding is the major factor contributing to mass mortality Brown 1999, 2002;Brown et al 2003). In contrast, Atlantic Cod at later developmental stages (i.e., larvae in metamorphosis and juveniles) display higher survival rates and appear to be more robust (Pedersen and Falk-Petersen 1992;Opstad et al 2006;Meier et al 2010). Indeed, in the present study, no differences in survival were found for Atlantic Cod exposed during metamorphosis (46 DPH) or at the juvenile stage (60 DPH).…”