Oil is big business, but it could also impact the fishing industry drastically. New findings reveal that the crude oil in the water could cause fish to have a heart attack.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was devastating for the Gulf Coast. It released about 4 million barrels of crude oil during the peak spawning time for the Atlantic bluefin tuna in 2010. This meant that the health of the fish and the fishery was greatly impacted.
Crude oil is actually known to be cardiotoxic to developing fish. Yet the physiological mechanisms underlying its harmful effects have been unclear-until now. Scientists took a closer look at the crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and found that the oil interrupts tuna's heart cells.
"The ability of a heart cell to beat depends on its capacity to move essential ions like potassium and calcium into and out of the cells quickly," said Barbara Block, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This dynamic process, which is common to all vertebrates, is called 'excitation-contraction coupling.' We have discovered that crude oil interferes with this vital signaling process essential for our heart cells to function properly."
The findings reveal how oil can drastically impact fish. Yet it doesn't show only that; it also reveals how it can affect other marine life and even humans. The chemicals associated with crude oil can also exist at relatively enriched levels in air pollution.
"When we see these kinds of acute effects at the cardiac cell level, it is not surprising that chronic exposure to oil from spill such as the Deepwater Horizon can lead to long-term problems in fish hearts, as our NOAA colleagues have observed in studies of larval fish development," said Block in a news release.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
