Oil pollution has been detected in thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico, including higher levels in popular seafood choices like yellowfin tuna, tilefish and red drum, according to a new study.
The research was carried out between 2011 and 2018, sampling more than 2,500 individual fish that belonged to 91 species living in 359 different locations in the Gulf. All of them contained oil exposure. When the Deepwater Horizon explosion occurred 10 years ago, millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico's waters over 87 days. The BP oil spill became the largest accidental oil spill in US history.
"This was the first baseline study of its kind, and it's shocking that we haven't done this before given the economic value of fisheries and petroleum extraction in the Gulf of Mexico," Steven Murawksi said in a statement. Murawksi is lead of the international research effort and professor of fisheries biology at the University of South Florida."Literally all the fish that we've tested have some level of hydrocarbon; there are no pristine fish in this system.
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