Experts: Oil spill could impact wildlife for generations

PANAMA CITY — Those fearing the worst imagine oil-covered seabirds when they think of the aftermath of the BP drilling disaster, but local wildlife experts say the most damaging effects of a spill aren’t as visible in the short-term.

“Spills affect wildlife in different ways,” Stan Fenner, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) director of conservation science, said Monday. “The first and most visible things seem to be the immediate deaths. But there are a whole lot of effects that are much less visible, but perhaps longer term.”

Those long-term effects are a result of the timing of the spill, which coincided with migratory bird season, sea turtle-nesting season and fish-spawning season. Fenner said that while oil-covered animals won’t be seen locally, the oil leaking into the Gulf could affect generations of wildlife.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public affairs officer Denise Rowell said pelicans and sea turtles are among the populations in the most danger. While oil is unlikely to wash over the local beaches where the turtles nest, parents can contaminate their eggs if they’ve been exposed to the spill.

“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” Rowell said. “Oil is extremely toxic on eggs. If even a little bit of oil gets on some eggs, it usually means the eggs are goners. We could lose an entire nesting season.”

Rowell added the adults in those species also are in danger, as they may run into the spill as they forage for food. If a bird or turtle is exposed to oil, it can hinder its ability to fly or swim. And ingestion causes severe illness, although not necessarily death.

For fish, getting oil into their gills can be deadly, as it inhibits their ability to breathe. Fish that are coated with oil but avoid filling their lungs with the substance can survive the ordeal, which raises questions about the safety of local seafood supplies.

NOAA spokeswoman Brian Gorman said samples of Gulf fish already are being collected, as well as samples from area fish markets. He said oysters, crab and shrimp are the organization’s main concern, as fish can escape the spill. He said it will be several days before preliminary results are ready, and in the meantime, federal waters have been closed to fishing.

Closing those waters is likely to have a huge impact on the availability of the deepwater bluefin tuna. The Gulf is only one of two breeding grounds for the popular species, leading Capt. Bob Zales of the Leo Too to predict it will be a while before local fisherman start catching them again.

“With the oil there, the prey species they’re hunting are not there, so they’re not going to hang around,” he said, adding they would escape to deep waters away from the spill. “The commercial guys are trying to harvest what they can harvest while they can.”

And they’re not just looking for tuna. Capt. Anderson’s co-owner Yonnie Patronis said the fishing fleet is trying to build up a stock of all popular species. Everything from cobia to grouper could be affected, as bottom-dwelling fish that mostly escaped the spill initially will feel its effects when dispersal agents cause the oil to clump together and sink to the bottom.

“They’re aggressively fishing the Gulf out of fear of what’s to come,” he said, adding that local waters have not been closed.

And the fear is not only that the spill will affect the fishery in the short-term, but also have lingering long-term effects. Gulf fish are spawning, putting the next generation at risk as 200,000 gallons of oil pump into the Gulf daily, destroying eggs and larval fish.

“Our prime concern is not so much for the adult populations,” Zales said. “Our prime concern is for the fish that have spawned. That’s where the spill will do its worst damage.”