Abstract
Using ship-based surveys, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees assessed the external oiling of offshore and pelagic marine birds inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) in the year following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWH spill). Study objectives were to (1) collect data on pelagic seabirds that were visibly oiled, (2) collect data to estimate abundance of seabirds in offshore and pelagic waters, and 3) document the location and condition of any bird carcasses encountered. Methods employed included strip line transects and station point counts. Surveys were conducted within a study area bound by the Texas-Mexico border and the Dry Tortugas of Florida to the south, and the nearshore coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. A total of 5665 strip line transects and 386 station point-counts of variable duration were collected during the study. More than 23,000 individual seabirds comprising 45 estuarine, coastal, offshore, and pelagic species were tallied. Average daily abundance of seabirds detected varied from a low of approximately 7 birds/day in November 2010 along regions of the mid- and outer continental shelf to a high of more than 580 birds/day in June 2011 within the near-shore, coastal waters of the northern Gulf.
Highlights
The Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling unit exploded, caught fire and sank on April 20, 2010, initiating release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This spill continued for 87 days, discharging a total volume of 134 million gallons into the northern Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill ever in the USA
Oil spill-related injury to wildlife was of major concern to the public and Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (Trustees
Pelagic surveys provided data on the diversity and abundance of seabirds that were exposed to oil, the primary objective of this paper
Summary
The Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling unit exploded, caught fire and sank on April 20, 2010, initiating release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This spill continued for 87 days, discharging a total volume of 134 million gallons into the northern Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill ever in the USA. To understand the injury to birds offshore, the Trustees examined the distribution and density of birds at sea with aerial surveys (Ford 2010), but this did not always provide important information on oiled or dead birds. Pelagic surveys provided data on the diversity and abundance of seabirds that were exposed to oil, the primary objective of this paper
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