Oil impact on the environment and aquatic organisms on the coasts of the states of Alagoas and Sergipe, Brazil - A preliminary evaluation

The most extensive oil spill registered in tropical oceans (Brazil): the balance sheet of a disaster

“…The first work after the accident showed considerable levels of PAHs such as: naphthalene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, fluorene, and acenaphthalene in seawater, fish, and massunins (bivalve). On the other hand, metals such as Hg, As, Cd, Pb, and Zn were found only in seawater, at levels above those recommended in the Brazilian resolution (Soares et al 2021).…”

“…Monitors and co-management measures must be implemented to minimize the public health, ecological, and socioeconomic effects of this extensive spill. To elucidate the magnitude of the disaster and to contribute to the adequate restoration, we emphasize the urgent need for research focusing on the following issues: (1) levels and effects of contamination in tropical food webs; (2) environmental toxicity (PAHs -polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) from oil and its residues in populations and ecosystems not evaluated to date (e.g., fishes, oysters, rhodolith beds, and coral reefs) (Miranda et al 2020;Müller et al 2021;Soares et al 2021); (3) biomonitors, biomarkers (Almeida et al 2021), and microbial remediation of the oil spill (Appolinario et al 2019;Rodrigues et al 2020); and (4) monitoring of the acute and chronic ecological and socioeconomic impacts on traditional human communities and coastal ecosystems. Finally, there is a global concern regarding the impacts of mapping, exploitation, transportation, and uses of fossil fuels in the threatened world by climate change and the biodiversity crisis.…”

“…Recent analyses have indicated that the seawater, fishes, and bivalves presented the main PAH: naphthalene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, fluorene, and acenaphthalene. In this regard, naphthalene was the major contributor to the total concentration of 16 PAH analyzed (Soares et al 2021).…”

“…No time-scale boundaries were imposed. To identify articles missed during the first step of selection, we also consulted the references cited in each relevant article and review (Goncalves et al 2020;Lourenço et al 2020;Magris and Giarrizzo 2020;Soares et al 2020a, b;Estevo et al 2021;Campelo et al 2021;Craveiro et al 2021;Soares et al 2021;Zacharias et al 2021a, b). All papers with an English title and abstract were manually screened for content, and the remaining papers were downloaded and examined individually.…”

“…Furthermore, the exposure resulted in mutagenic damage to bone marrow blood cells and behavioral and morphological alterations, which are usually dose-dependent (Almeida et al 2021). These results highlight the possible impacts on marine animals and the health of human communities due to the contamination by PAH and toxic metals (Soares et al 2021). Indeed, due to the absence of coordinated actions by the federal government (Brum et al 2020;Soares et al 2020b), fishing colony members collaborated with local communities, NGOs, and universities to remove oil and monitor beaches during the critical periods in several affected regions (Pena et al 2020).…”