Interagency Investigations of a Persistent Oil Spill on the Washington Coast: Animal Population Studies, Hydrocarbon Uptake by Marine Organisms, and Algae Response Following the Grounding of the Troopship GENERAL M. C. MEIGS

Abstract

ABSTRACT An interagency team of biologists, chemists, oceanographers and engineers has been investigating the long-term effects of oil spilled by the grounding of the troopship GENERAL M. C. MEIGS January 6, 1972, on an ocean coast intertidal community of plants and animals. Oil has continuously been released from the 440,000 liters of Navy Special Fuel Oil carried by the vessel. The team assessed biological damage by making 1) surveys of abundance and physiological condition of animals, 2) qualitative evaluation of obvious damage to plants, and 3) measurements of the hydrocarbon uptake in both plants and animals. A series of sites, forming a vertical profile of the rocky shelf area from the upper intertidal zone to the lowest low tide level in Wreck Cove, have been studied. This report describes the preliminary findings of the first ten months (January-October, 1972) of the investigation. Abnormal and dead urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) indicated that this species was affected. Loss of fronds and bleached thalli not evident in control areas were observed in the plant community in the immediate vicinity of the hulk. Petroleum hydrocarbons were taken up in the intertidal community. The normal paraffin hydrocarbon patterns and content over the range n-C14 H30 to n-C37H76 of healthy-appearing goose barnacles (Mitella polymerus), crabs (Hemigrapsus nudus) and an alga (Fucus gardneri) display the same basic characteristics as the fuel oil which had been lost from the GENERAL M. C. MEIGS.