Marine iguanas die from trace oil pollution

An oil tanker ran aground on the Galapagos island of San Cristóbal on 17 January 2001, spilling roughly three million litres of diesel and bunker oil. The slick started to spread westwards and was dispersed by strong currents, so only a few marine animals were killed immediately as a result. Here we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2002-06, Vol.417 (6889), p.607-608
Main Authors: Wikelski, Martin, Wong, Vanessa, Chevalier, Brett, Rattenborg, Niels, Snell, Howard L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adrenal Cortex Hormones - blood
Animals
Digestion - drug effects
Disasters
Ecuador
Environmental Pollution - adverse effects
Eukaryota - drug effects
Eukaryota - physiology
Food Chain
Gasoline - adverse effects
Iguanas - blood
Iguanas - physiology
Models, Biological
Petroleum - adverse effects
Symbiosis - drug effects
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Summary:An oil tanker ran aground on the Galapagos island of San Cristóbal on 17 January 2001, spilling roughly three million litres of diesel and bunker oil. The slick started to spread westwards and was dispersed by strong currents, so only a few marine animals were killed immediately as a result. Here we draw on the long-term data sets gathered before the spill to show that a population of marine iguanas (Amblyrhychus cristatus) on Sante Fe island suffered a massive 62% mortality in the year after the accident, due to a small amount of residual oil contamination in the sea. Another population on the more remote island of Genovesa was unaffected.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/417607a