Volume 67
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Analysis of Red Snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, Muscle Tissue after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Authors
Roberts, C. and S. Szedlmayer Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2014
Pages: 171 - 172
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty seven Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Christ Church
Country: Barbados
Abstract
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred on 20 April 2010, which led to approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil entering the northern Gulf of Mexico. Red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, are an economically important commercial and recreational species in the Gulf of Mexico, and were potentially exposed to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) from this oil spill. To assess this potential PAH exposure, red snapper muscle tissue samples were collected from 2010 to 2012, and analyzed for several PAHs. Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. This method is extremely accurate and gives the concentration of each PAH in parts-per-billion (ppb). The highest total PAH in an individual red snapper muscle tissue was 52 ppb among all samples analyzed from 2010 (n = 123), 2011 (n = 32), and 2012 (n = 448). Significant differences were observed in total (± SE) PAH by year, with 2010 = 4.6 ± 0.5 ppb, 2011 = 7.1 ± 0.6 ppb, and 2012 = 2.5 ± 0.2 ppb (ANOVA: F2,600 = 22.7, p < 0.0001). We have analyzed post spill tissue samples for eight PAH compounds. The highest PAH concentrations were shown for naphthalene (1.5± 0.1 ppb) and fluorene (0.7± 0.1 ppb). However, all measured PAHs were in the range of levels previously observed from pristine Antarctica fish tissue samples (13 to 145 ppb dry wt.).