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. 2020 Mar 17;191(Suppl 4):817.
doi: 10.1007/s10661-019-7925-y.

Oiling of American white pelicans, common loons, and northern gannets in the winter following the Deepwater Horizon (MC252) oil spill

J D Paruk  1 , I J Stenhouse  2 , B J Sigel  2   3 , E M Adams  2 , W A Montevecchi  4 , D C Evers  2 , A T Gilbert  2 , M Duron  2 , D Long 4th  2 , J Hemming  5 , P Tuttle  5
Affiliations

Oiling of American white pelicans, common loons, and northern gannets in the winter following the Deepwater Horizon (MC252) oil spill

J D Paruk et al. Environ Monit Assess. .

Abstract

The Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill assessed the external oiling of migratory bird species dependent on open water in the Gulf of Mexico following the aforementioned spill. The assessment was designed to evaluate birds that use open water during the winter within 40 km of the Gulf shoreline. We focused on the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), common loon (Gavia immer), and northern gannet (Morus bassanus). Point counts (pelican, loon) or strip transects (gannet) were used and each target species was assessed for oiling (unoiled, trace, light, moderate, or heavy amounts) and photographed. Due to distance at sighting and/or poor visibility, not all visible birds were assessed. The percentage of birds oiled varied by species, with the common loon being the highest (23.6%), followed by American white pelican (16.9%), and northern gannet (6.9%). Most of the American white pelicans and common loons had trace (83% and 72%, respectively) or light levels (11% and 24%, respectively) of oiling. The northern gannet had just trace levels of oiling. Some pelicans (6%) and loons (4%) had moderate amounts of oiling. Based on expert derived-mortality estimates and our estimates of oil exposure, we used Monte Carlo simulations to predict expected decreases of 2.5%, 4%, and 11% in the observed population for the northern gannet, American white pelican, and common loon, respectively. While these values are underestimates of the true values given the long time lag (10-12 months) between the oil spill and the assessment, these data represent some of the few estimates of exposure for these species and describe minimum risk estimates to these species.

Keywords: American white pelican; Common loon; Deepwater horizon oil spill; Northern gannet; Oiling.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study area and US Coast Guard Area Contingency Plan grids where boat- and land-based surveys for external oiling of American white pelicans, common loons, and northern gannets were conducted, January–March 2011
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Survey transect design for northern gannets in the northern Gulf of Mexico, 17 February 2011–16 March 2011
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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