A Field And Laboratory Assessment of Oil-Spill Effects on Survival and Reproduction of Pacific Herrring Following The Exxon Valdez Spill

摘要

Pacific herning, Clupea pallasi, spawn along hundreads of kilometers of shoreline in prince Wiliam Sound. HErring eggs incubate in intertidal and shallow subtidal areas attached to kelp and eelgrass. In April 1989, following hte Exxon Valdez oil spill, there was potential in Prince WIlliam Sound for localized effects on spawning herring, their eggs, and the hatching larvae. Field and laboratory investigations in 1989 and 1990 were designed to assess potential injury to prince william Sound herring by testing for differences between oiled regios and unoiled reference areas and by relating biological response variables to the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in eggs-on-kelp samples from Prince William Sound and Sitka Sound. The eggs and hatching larvae were examined to evaluate serveral response variables: egg development, hatch, larval survival, abnormal development of larvae, larval length, and larval yold-sac volume.