A decade of declines in toothed whale densities following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Abstract Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began in April 2010, a widely spaced passive acoustic monitoring array was deployed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico to document the impacts of this unprecedentedly large and deep offshore oil spill on oceanic marine mammals. The array was subsequently maintained for over a decade. Here we document decadal density declines for seven of eight monitored species groups, including sperm whales (up to 31%), beaked whales (up to 83%), and small delphinids (up to 43%). Declines were observed both within and outside of the surface oil footprint. Though not conclusively linked to the oil spill, the broad spatial and temporal scale of these declines observed for disparate marine mammal species is consistent with Deepwater Horizon impacts. These declines have exceeded and outlasted post-spill damage assessment predictions, suggesting that the offshore ecosystem impacts of Deepwater Horizon may have been larger than previously thought.
Authors
- Alba Solsona‐Berga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-742X)
- Sean M. Wiggins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9686-035X)
- Melissa S. Soldevilla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5548-7536)
- Lynne Hodge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4732-7604)
- Kaitlin E. Frasier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2401-8569)
- Matthieu Le Hénaff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5548-2543)
- Héloïse Frouin‐Mouy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2693-1105)
- John A. Hildebrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5418-9799)
- Adolfo Gracía (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5938-3451)
- Arturo Serrano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0175-458X)
- Carrie C. Wall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5315-8528)
- Lance Garrison
- Macey Kadifa
Institutions
- University of Miami (US)
- Universidad Veracruzana (MX)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (US)
- NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Fisheries Science Center (US)
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (US)
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2024-12-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01920-8
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Marine animal studies overview
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.84
Funders
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- Marine Mammal Commission
- University of Miami
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Office of Science
- Office of Naval Research
- National Marine Fisheries Service
- National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
- NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
- Southeast Fisheries Science Center