Seafood Issues During Spills
Painting by Raul Colon for Time Magazi
Seafood Contamination:
Threat to Public Health
Photo:
Tilapia.com
Photo: Newfoundland & Labrador Dept. of Trade &
Technology
Seafood & Fisheries Issues during Oil Spills:
What We’re Gonna Talk About
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Introduction & background
What’s at risk
Fisheries impacts in international spills
A little science related to tainting
Sensory assessment
A couple of U.S. spill examples
Reference materials
Overview of regional experiences
Seafood &Fisheries Issues During Spills:
So, What’s the Big Deal?
Oil spills can threaten:
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Public health
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Fisheries & associated economies
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The resources themselves
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Regional social and ethnocultural fabric
Seafood &Fisheries Issues During Spills:
So, What’s the Big Deal?
Oil spills can threaten:
•
Public health
•
Fisheries & associated economies
•
The resources themselves
•
Regional social and ethnocultural fabric
“…Are the fish
safe to eat??”
Food safety in the American
consciousness…
Photo: W. Eugene Smith,
1972
Photo: Food Safety Network
Seafood &Fisheries Issues During Spills:
So, What’s the Big Deal?
Oil spills can threaten:
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Public health
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Fisheries & associated economies
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The resources themselves
•
Regional social and ethnocultural fabric
Potential Economic Effects of an Oil Spill on the
Seafood Industry
(Knapp, 2005)
Oil Spill Economics:
“Perceived Quality Demand Effect (PQDE)”
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Significance of the PQDE depends on the extent to which
buyers perceive that fish may have been tainted:
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Publicity may raise concerns of buyers or consumers even if no
tainted fish are offered for sale
Even a small amount of uncertainty may affect demand for fish from
a region where a spill has occurred—especially if buyers have
alternative sources of supply.
PQDE can be reduced or eliminated by:
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Ensuring that tainted fish are not offered for sale
Ensuring that buyers know that tainted fish are not being offered for
sale
Source: G. Knapp, University of Alaska-Anchora
Seafood &Fisheries Issues During Spills:
So, What’s the Big Deal?
Oil spills can threaten:
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Public health
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Fisheries & associated economies
•
The resources themselves
•
Regional social and ethnocultural fabric
Photo: City of Oklahoma City
North Cape photos: Frank Csulak, NOAA
North Cape Spill, 1996
Calculated Resource Mortalities
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Marine environment
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9 million lobsters
19 million surf clams
4.2 million fish
>500,000 kg worms, crabs, mussels, sea stars
Salt ponds:
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7 million worms & amphipods
> 1 million crabs, shrimp, clams oysters
500,000 fish
Salmon photos: Jeep Rice, NOA
Oil Impacts to
Larval Herring &
Salmon
Herring photos: Mark Carls, NOAA
Seafood &Fisheries Issues During Spills:
So, What’s the Big Deal?
Oil spills can threaten:
•
Public health
•
Fisheries & associated economies
•
The resources themselves
•
Regional social and ethnocultural fabric
Photo: C.A. Woody, USGS
Photo: Alaska Museum of History & Art
Photo: © S. Harris 1944
Nakhodka Spill,
1997
Japan—Nakhodka Spill, 1997
Spain—Prestige Spill, 2002
Physiology of
Oil Exposure
(Krahn and Stein, 1998)
Seafood Contamination During Spills:
Tainting
Tainting = abnormal odor or flavor
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Introduced into seafood from external sources
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Excludes natural byproducts of decomposition from
storage & microbial contamination; taint is derived from
materials present in the surroundings
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American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM) and
International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards
exist for tainting and assessment of tainting
Petroleum Tainting:
A Few Measurements in the Lab
(Davis et al., 2002)
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Tainting thresholds (Forties crude oil):
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Trout
Salmon
Crab
Mussels
0.10 mg/L
0.11 mg/L
>7.7 mg/L
0.03 mg/L
Tainting occurs rapidly in fish
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Detected in fish within 30 min. of exposure to 20 & 31 mg/L
crude oil in water
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Loss of taint can be slow: weeks to months
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In tainted salmon, naphthalenes were the most prevalent
PAHs
Correlating Taint & Chemistry:
T/V Braer & Pen-Reared Salmon
50
10
0
40
80
30
60
20
40
10
20
0
0
0
50
10
0
Days since grounding
15
0
20
0
Source: Whittle et al. (1997)
Exxon Valdez—1989
Photo: © M. Rosenberg
Selendang Ayu—2005
The Far Side of
Sensory Testing…
Guidance on Sensory Testing &
Monitoring of Seafood During Oil Spills
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Authored by Terri Reilly (NOAA/NMFS Seafood
Inspection Program) & Roberta York (Canadian Food
Inspection Agency)
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Systematic “how to” document for
conducting sensory testing
Guidance on Sensory Testing &
Monitoring of Seafood During Oil Spills
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Scope & Use
Sample collection & preservation
Selecting test methods
Selecting, training & validating assessors
Facilities requirements
Sample handling, prep & presentation
Sensory evaluation protocols
Data analysis & decision criteria
Oil Chemistry as a Tool for Assessing Seafood Risk
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Advantages
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Quantitative
Confirms that oil is source of taint
Very low detection limits
Disadvantages
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Expensive
Requires long lead time
Must feed into risk assessment…”So what?” question
Oil (PAHs) & Human Risk Assessment:
Toxicity Equivalency Approach
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Designed by USFDA, used during Exxon Valdez, based on
carcinogenic endpoint
• Additional cancer risk considered to be “acceptable” by
risk managers
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Risk is calculated from body weight, consumption rate,
cancer potency of contaminant, exposure duration
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Oiled seafood risk is based on benzo(a)pyrene (BaP)
because BaP is known carcinogen and empirical data exist
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Toxicity of other PAHs is based on BaP toxicity—”BaP
equivalents”
Oil (PAHs) & Human Risk Assessment:
BaP Equivalency Caveats
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Based on cancer risk
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Based on animal studies
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If insufficient toxicity data for a given PAH exists to
calculate a BaP potency, that PAH is omitted
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Few of the PAHs we measure are included in the BaP
calculation
Most PAH cancer potencies are for pyrogenic (combustionsourced) vs. petrogenic (oil-sourced) hydrocarbons
Different equivalency values have been used at different
spills—no standardization
North Cape spill (1996)
Photo: Doug Helton, NOAA
Barge North Cape:
Potential Location of Oil Above Background 19-25 January 1996
North Cape:
Closing a Fishery…
(This is the easy part…)
North Cape:
Re-Opening a
Closed Fishery…
(This is the harder part…)
North Cape Spill Fishery Closure Facts
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Rhode Island Department of Health closed 200 sq. mi. of
commercial fishery
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Closure coordinated with USEPA and NOAA/NMFS, which closed
federal fishing grounds under Magnuson Act
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First federal fishery closure during oil spill
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Sensory panels formed to evaluate lobsters & clams
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Full reopening of RI fisheries not completed until mid-June (five
months)
M/V Selendang Ayu
2004-2005
Selendang Ayu Commercial Fisheries
Workgroup Process
(DeCola et al., 2006)
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Background: Alaska has “zero tolerance” policy for
seafood contamination during oil spills
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Uncertainty about management of fisheries during spills (no
standards and many jurisdictions)
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Objectives: assessment & management of risks, avoidance
or minimization of fishing closures, bans & exclusion zones
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Workgroup members: fisheries managers, spill
responders, local fishing & processing reps, public
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Membership included reps who had authority to make
decisions and commit resources
Ex-value of seafood delivered to Unalaska/Dutch Harbor exceeds $2 billion
Processing sector provides 6000-10000 seasonal jobs
Selendang Ayu Commercial Fisheries Workgroup:
Risk Assessment & Communication
(DeCola at al. 2006)
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Assessment
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Water quality sampling
Enhanced seafood inspections
Observations from spill responders
Observations from fishermen
Communication
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Notices to fleet
Public meetings
Website
Workgroup members —> constituents
Selendang Ayu Commercial Fisheries
Workgroup Process
(DeCola et al., 2006)
So…did it work??
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(Read the paper)
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All Bering Sea fisheries opened as scheduled
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One local crab fishery adjacent to the spill site was closed
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Sampling for tarballs resulted in only rare positive hits
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Sampling for oil in intakes and holds resulted in no hits
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And…a new metric…
“The Discovery Channel show ‘Deadliest Catch’ filmed
their first season during the Bering Sea crab season in
2005, and the fact that the potential for contamination from
the Selendang Ayu was never even mentioned in the
storyline is a good measure of how effectively the program
went and how little hysteria resulted in the public arena.”
DeCola et al.
(2006)
Yender et al. (2002)
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Intro & background
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Assessing the
likelihood of
contamination
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Monitoring for
contamination
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Risk assessment
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Risk communication
Seafood & Fisheries Issues during Oil Spills:
References on the CD
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Managing Seafood Safety after an Oil Spill (Yender et al., 2002)
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Guidance on Sensory Testing and Monitoring of Seafood … Following an Oil Spill (Reilly and
York, 2001)
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Closing and reopening fisheries following oil spills (Mauseth et al. 1997)
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Trends in rescinding seafood harvest closures following oil spills (Mauseth and Challenger,
2001)
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The M/V Selendang Ayu Commercial Fisheries Workgroup Process (DeCola et al. 2006)
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Oil Spills and Fisheries Markets: Potential Effects and Mitigation Strategies (Knapp 2005)
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Experimental tainting of marine fish…with comparison to the Braer oil spill (Davis et al., 2002)
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…and a few other miscellaneous odds and ends that you will be glad to have the next time
there’s a spill with a threatened fishery…
Seafood & Fisheries Issues during Oil Spills:
What We Done Talked About
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction & background
What’s at risk
Fisheries impacts in international spills
A little science related to tainting
Sensory assessment
A couple of U.S. spill examples
Reference materials
Overview of regional experiences