Study finds Gulf of Mexico marine life decline after BP spill
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The gist
A study in PNAS found Gulf of Mexico sea life fell 59-72% between 2011 and 2015 after the BP spill.
The decline persisted for over a decade, with little visible recovery.
Background
The study's lead author is Tracey Sutton, a biological oceanographer at Nova Southeastern University. It follows the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire, in which the BP-operated well failed and dumped 134 million gallons of oil, killing 11 workers. Researchers focused on the ocean's "twilight zone," a vast area above the seafloor where much surface marine life, including dolphins and whales, feeds — a region of the Gulf that had not been studied before the spill. The findings were published Monday in the journal PNAS.
How it unfolded
- 2010The Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers; the BP-operated well failed and dumped 134 million gallons of oil.
- 2011A post-spill exploration using six sets of nets at different depths and acoustic sonar measured sea life between the surface and 5,000 feet deep (1,500 meters).
- 2014 -2015Researchers returned with the same equipment and found sea life was between one-third and one-quarter of what it was in 2011.
- 2011 to 2015Fish numbers dropped 63.5%, crustaceans including shrimp and krill fell 62%, larger animals like squid and octopuses fell 59.7%, and krill dropped 72%; lanternfish are a third of what they used to be.
- 2022 -2023Sampling since 2015 showed low populations remained, with a slight rise in 2022 and 2023 that did not prove statistically significant or lasting.
- 2024Frasier, who was not part of the study, published a post-spill study on Gulf of Mexico whales and dolphins finding population drops as high as 83%.
- Oct 19, 2026The study was published in the journal PNAS.
Who’s saying what
- Authors
- Lead author Tracey Sutton said temperature, oxygen and food did not vary with the decline but the oil spill did, so the team thinks the spill is the most likely cause.
- Expert
- Marine scientist Boris Worm, not part of the study, said it is shocking how a single drilling-rig failure had such a vast, sustained impact over thousands of square kilometers with little visible recovery over 13 years.
- Caution
- Worm and Rita Colwell said the damage should be kept in mind as the world discusses deep-sea mining and increased oil drilling in deep waters.
- Party
- BP spokesperson Paul Takahashi said the accident "forever changed" the company and that it has made many changes intended to help prevent such an event from ever happening again.
- Expert
- Co-author Isabel Romero said dispersant breaks oil into smaller droplets, increasing exposure of animals in the deeper water column; Colwell said dispersants caused many problems and that avoiding them in future accidents would be better.
Still unverified
Sutton said his team could not prove an exact causal link to the BP oil spill, describing it as the most likely cause after other possibilities were eliminated; he also said the slight rise in populations in 2022 and 2023 did not prove statistically significant or lasting.