416
Horizon 2010). These two mega oil spills (the largest submarine blowouts ever to
occur globally) caused serious concern regarding potential impact on the abundance
and quality of fishery resources. Were the stocks seriously affected by contamination?
How do the stocks respond to these oil spills? What is the resiliency of fishery
resources of the GoM? These are some of the questions that have arisen as a result
of the previous two mega oil blowouts. This also begs the question of how yet
another large blowout would affect fishery resources, depending on where, when,
and under what circumstances it might occur. In this chapter we analyze the impact
of these two mega oil spills on fisheries of the GoM and discuss resiliency potential
and strategies to make these stocks more resilient in the face of eventual future oil
spill disasters in the GoM.
25.2 The Oil Spills
The Ixtoc 1 well blowout in the Southern GoM was considered the world’s largest
oil spill in the world when it happened (Jernelöv and Lindén 1981). The exploratory
well was located about 94 km NW of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, at a water
depth of 54 m. The Ixtoc 1 oil spill lasted almost 10 months (3 June 1979 to 23
March 1980) resulting in 3.1 million barrels of oil being spilled into the SW GoM. It
was estimated that after the efforts to collect the oil and processes like oil burning,
evaporation, and biodegradation, 1.023 million barrels of oil were left in the sea
(PCEESC 1980). Oil was dispersed by the dominant current pattern along a large
area in the Southern GoM, and some oil eventually reached Texas beaches (Sun
et al. 2015). A fortunate situation was that very little oil was transported into coastal
lagoons which are the main nursery grounds of many commercially important species (e.g., shrimps). High river flow due to heavy rains and current patterns played
a critical role in preventing oil from reaching the main nursery grounds including
the Laguna de Términos.
The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout 30 years after Ixtoc 1 proved to be
larger in both volume and areal extent. The explosion of the DWH occurred on 20
April 2010, 78 km off the Louisiana coast, spilling a large quantity of crude oil
into the Gulf of Mexico. During the 87 days of the spill (20 April to 15 July),
approximately 4.1 million barrels of light crude oil leaked into the marine environment (McNutt et al. 2012). The accident occurred at a depth of 1500 meters.
Part of the oil was removed from the marine environment through a combination
of cleanup activities and natural processes including dissolution, evaporation,
biodegradation, and dispersion. The oil spilled into the GoM was estimated to be
3.7 million barrels (McNutt et al. 2012; Ryerson et al. 2012) that dispersed in a
large area.
A. Gracia et al.
Horizon 2010). These two mega oil spills (the largest submarine blowouts ever to
occur globally) caused serious concern regarding potential impact on the abundance
and quality of fishery resources. Were the stocks seriously affected by contamination?
How do the stocks respond to these oil spills? What is the resiliency of fishery
resources of the GoM? These are some of the questions that have arisen as a result
of the previous two mega oil blowouts. This also begs the question of how yet
another large blowout would affect fishery resources, depending on where, when,
and under what circumstances it might occur. In this chapter we analyze the impact
of these two mega oil spills on fisheries of the GoM and discuss resiliency potential
and strategies to make these stocks more resilient in the face of eventual future oil
spill disasters in the GoM.
25.2 The Oil Spills
The Ixtoc 1 well blowout in the Southern GoM was considered the world’s largest
oil spill in the world when it happened (Jernelöv and Lindén 1981). The exploratory
well was located about 94 km NW of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, at a water
depth of 54 m. The Ixtoc 1 oil spill lasted almost 10 months (3 June 1979 to 23
March 1980) resulting in 3.1 million barrels of oil being spilled into the SW GoM. It
was estimated that after the efforts to collect the oil and processes like oil burning,
evaporation, and biodegradation, 1.023 million barrels of oil were left in the sea
(PCEESC 1980). Oil was dispersed by the dominant current pattern along a large
area in the Southern GoM, and some oil eventually reached Texas beaches (Sun
et al. 2015). A fortunate situation was that very little oil was transported into coastal
lagoons which are the main nursery grounds of many commercially important species (e.g., shrimps). High river flow due to heavy rains and current patterns played
a critical role in preventing oil from reaching the main nursery grounds including
the Laguna de Términos.
The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout 30 years after Ixtoc 1 proved to be
larger in both volume and areal extent. The explosion of the DWH occurred on 20
April 2010, 78 km off the Louisiana coast, spilling a large quantity of crude oil
into the Gulf of Mexico. During the 87 days of the spill (20 April to 15 July),
approximately 4.1 million barrels of light crude oil leaked into the marine environment (McNutt et al. 2012). The accident occurred at a depth of 1500 meters.
Part of the oil was removed from the marine environment through a combination
of cleanup activities and natural processes including dissolution, evaporation,
biodegradation, and dispersion. The oil spilled into the GoM was estimated to be
3.7 million barrels (McNutt et al. 2012; Ryerson et al. 2012) that dispersed in a
large area.
A. Gracia et al.