Intergenerational Effect of Exposure to Crude Oil and Dispersants on the Estuarine Sheepshead Minnow, Cyprinodon variegatu

As dependency on fossil fuels continues into the 21st century, oil spills and their remediation remain areas of concern. Understanding how crude oil affects marine life, both in dispersed and non-dispersed forms, is crucial to making informed decisions about the application of chemical dispersants. This study investigated the effects of exposure to Louisiana Sweet crude oil alone and in mixture with Corexit RTM EC9500 or Finasol RTM OSR52 to two generations of Cyprinodon variegatus, the sheepshead minnow. An adult generation was exposed to either an oil-water accommodated fraction (WAF), an oil + Corexit RTM chemically-enhanced WAF (CEWAF) or an oil + Finasol RTM CEWAF. Adult fish were then spawned and their juvenile (14-day post-hatch) F1 offspring were exposed in an LC50 test to the same WAF or CEWAF. Few significant effects were seen on adult fish health in the acute WAF and CEWAF exposures, and the subsequent survival of the F1 generation was not significantly affected by parental exposure. Total extractable hydrocarbon (TEH) LC50 values in determined for F1 juveniles from non-exposed adults were >1.1 mg/L, 168.8 mg/L, and 13.7 mg/L from oil-WAF, Corexit-CEWAF, and Finasol-CEWAF, respectively. Total extractable hydrocarbon (TEH) LC50 values determined for F1 juveniles from exposed adults were found to be >1.1 mg/L, 160.5 mg/L, and 8.6 mg/L from oil-WAF, Corexit-CEWAF, and Finasol-CEWAF, respectively.