The prognosis for major species of large game fish, including bluefin tuna and swordfish is not good following the BP oil spill;
“It’s obvious that any egg or larvae encountering oil will die,” said Molly Lutcavage, director of a research center on large fish and turtles at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Less clear is whether fish would have continued to lay eggs near the spill after it began. Most fish can smell, and researchers hope that at least some species would have avoided spawning in oil. However, fish that can be readily spotted from the air, like whale sharks, have been seen in recent weeks in the vicinity of the spill.
“The question is, does everything shut down if there’s oil there, or do they just go ahead and spawn anyway?” said Eric Hoffmayer, a researcher at the University of Southern Mississippi. Many important fish in the region, like yellowfin tuna, are able to spawn across broad areas of the gulf, and that means significant numbers of such fish should have hatched this year far from the oil spill. But other species, including bluefin tuna, apparently have a strong instinct to spawn in a specific part of the ocean. Scientists fear that instinct might overcome the presence of oil in the water, causing the fish to spawn in areas where their offspring would be likely to die. One of the spawning areas in the gulf favored by bluefin is in the vicinity of the spill, Dr. Block said.
The risks the spill poses to fish of all kinds have provoked deep alarm among commercial and sport fishing groups. At least a half-dozen major billfishing tournaments scheduled for June and July have been canceled, and tourists who would normally take deep-sea fishing trips this time of year are avoiding the gulf. The American Sportfishing Association estimated that business owners were losing millions of dollars in a recreational fishing industry worth more than $3.5 billion a year in the gulf. “It’s having a horrific impact on the marine and fishing industry,” said Dan Jacobs, tournament director for an offshore fishing championship.
“The big question is, how long is it going to last?” Given that it takes some big fish years to reach spawning age, the death of larvae and juvenile fish could have consequences that might not show up for a long time. “The oil spill could be the last straw with these very vulnerable species,” said Ellen Peel, president of the Billfish Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports recreational offshore fishing.
Looks like Cheney's company may cause the extinction of multiple species of incredibly valuable large gamefish. The tragedy in the Gulf is far from over.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24fish.html?_r=1
