Presentation
The Impact of Crude Oil Exposure on Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Larvae Survival: A Study on the Latent Effects Following Exposure
DescriptionCanada is the world’s largest producer of Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio), and this lucrative fishery accounts for nearly two-thirds of the global supply. Snow crab have planktonic larvae that undergo successive moults before settling on the benthos. The habitat occupied by snow crab larvae has significant overlap with areas of oil and gas exploration and transport in Atlantic Canada, which makes them a higher risk of being exposed in an offshore spill scenario. To understand the potential risks of an oil spill to early life stages of Snow crab, toxicity tests were performed utilizing the freshly hatched planktonic larvae, and exposing them for 24- or 48-hrs to water accommodated fractions (WAF) and chemically enhanced water accommodated fractions (CEWAF) of an offshore Newfoundland & Labrador crude oil. Following the exposure period, the larvae were transferred into clean water and were monitored for an additional 4 to 6 days to observe any latent effects of exposure. Very little mortality occurred during the exposure period, however at 3 days post exposure a concentration response relationship became apparent and continued to strengthen for the duration of monitoring period. The LC50s indicated that exposure to ~1 mg TPH/L are sufficient to cause latent mortality effects that were not observed within the first 24- or 48-hours post exposure. The results presented here provide valuable information on the sensitivity of a less commonly studied species of great economic importance and highlight the need for generating latent effects data.
Authors
Event Type
Paper
TimeThursday, May 16th8:40am - 9:00am CDT
Location291-292
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Response