Long-Term Ecological Impacts from Oil Spills: Comparison of Exxon Valdez, Hebei Spirit, and Deepwater Horizon

Abstract

The long-term ecological impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) are compared to two extensively studied and more recent large spills: Deepwater Horizon (DWH) and the Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS). Each of the three spills differed in magnitude and duration of oil released, environmental conditions, ecological communities, response and clean up measures, and ecological recovery. The EVOS began on March 24, 1989, and released 40.8 million liters of Alaska North Slope crude oil into the cold, nearly pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. EVOS oiled wildlife and rocky intertidal shorelines and exposed early life stages of fish to embryotoxic levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Long-term impacts following EVOS were observed on seabirds, sea otters, killer whales, and subtidal communities. The DWH spill began on April 20, 2010, and released 507 million liters of light Louisiana crude oil from 1600 m on the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico over an 87-day period. The DWH spill exposed a diversity of complex aquatic communities in the deep ocean, offshore pelagic areas, and coastal environments to petroleum hydrocarbons. Large-scale persistent ecological effects included impacts to deep ocean corals, failed recruitment of oysters over multiple years, damage to coastal wetlands, and reduced dolphin, sea turtle, and seabird populations. The HSOS began on December 7, 2007, and released approximately 13 million liters of Middle East crude oils into ecologically sensitive areas of the Taean area of western Korea. Environmental conditions and the extensive initial cleanup of HSOS oil stranded on shorelines limited the long-term impacts to changes in composition and abundance of intertidal benthic communities. Comparisons of EVOS, DWH, and HSOS show the importance and complexity of the interactions among the environment, oil spill dynamics, affected ecological systems, and response actions.

Previous oil exposure alters Gulf KillifishFundulus grandisoil avoidance behavior

“…The 2010 DwH oil spill was an unprecedented stressor for northern Gulf ecosystems, with oil impacting emergent and submerged plants ( Lin & Mendelssohn, 2012 ; Silliman et al, 2012 ), invertebrates ( McCall & Pennings, 2012 ; Powers et al, 2017 ; Zengel et al, 2016 ), and fishes ( Fodrie & Heck, 2011 ; Able et al, 2015 ; Schaefer, Frazier & Barr, 2016 ). While the full effect on the nearshore food web may not yet be fully realized because of the numerous and complex indirect food web mechanisms ( McCann et al, 2017 ; Barron et al, 2020 ), many studies have documented significant impacts to molecular, genomics, and development of fishes ( Whitehead et al, 2012 ; Dubansky et al, 2013 ) and resilience in populations and communities to oil’s toxic effects ( Fodrie et al, 2014 ; Martin et al, 2020 ). Among the proposed explanations for this resilience, despite oil’s known toxicity, is the behavioral emigration of organisms at small spatial scales to avoid exposure to contamination ( Martin, 2017 ).…”

Systemic risk of cruise ship incidents from an Arctic and insurance perspective

“…Thus, the extent of ice cover is extremely important for determining the fate of an Arctic oil spill, and oil spills in a warming Arctic climate have greater areal coverage and shoreline exposure (Nordam et al, 2017). The evidence of cases such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Canada, in 1989 suggests that oil depositions in the Arctic take already many years longer to decompose than in warmer parts of the world, leading to more severe and longer term ecological impacts (Barron et al, 2020).…”

Artisanal and Small Gold Mining and Petroleum Production as Potential Sources of Heavy Metal Contamination in Ecuador: A Call to Action

“…Cases such as the Brumadinho dam collapse, which occurred in 2019, are extreme examples of the impacts large-scale mining can cause [10]. In the petroleum industry, oil spills such as Exxon Valdez [11] or Deepwater Horizon [12] are well-known cases of major environmental disasters which affected kilometers of coastline and countless species at sea. Even when examples like these are the ones that come to mind when thinking about environmental impacts from mining and petroleum production, usually, the environmental impacts are more discrete.…”