Crabs and shrimp are looking for love, finding sickness at the polluted Deepwater Horizon spill site
Deep-sea crabs and shrimp have been appearing in droves at the oil-soaked site of the Deepwater Horizon rig. The likely reason, according to new research: Chemicals released from old, degraded oil mimic the hormones that put crustaceans in the mood for love.
But potential mates flocking to the polluted site 40 miles off the Louisiana coast aren’t exactly keepers.
“Their shells were black, and they had a lot of parasites on them,” said Craig McClain, director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, which led the research. “Many (crabs) were missing claws. They looked really unhealthy.”
It's been nine years since the Deepwater Horizon rig drilling BP's Macondo well blew up, causing an 87-day uncontrolled release of more than 160 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The site of the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history has recovered more slowly than expected, and it appears to be drawing in crustaceans and then making them sick, McClain said.
Read more: https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_87428c94-cf37-11e9-80a9-4341dc2fdbe4.html