Multi-trophic response and effects of an extensive oil spill in a coastal fish nursery

On the 26th of March 2023 a large reservoir fluid spill occurred (totalling 31,000 Litre) from a Perenco pipeline in Poole Harbour, Dorset.

This spill spread across the harbour and became particularly concentrated on the marshes of Brownsea Island - a nationally important juvenile fish nursery.

This oil spill brings about several urgent opportunities that the team are uniquely positioned to deliver on; that is, i) to ascertain the effects of the spill on fish health and nursery ground productivity in 2023/24 based on a BACI design, as we have sampled these and nearby sites in 2022; ii) to collect unique polluted fish tissue samples to the UKs first juvenile bass tissue bank, and an invertebrate tissue bank and associated analysis; iv) to document the spatio-temporal response of the in-situ microbial community, particularly hydrocarbon-degrading microbes.

In order to achieve these objectives, we require urgent funding to integrate these objectives into the 2023 field season of several research teams.

Building on our initial analysis and findings, we will develop a proposal to examine multi-trophic responses to marine oil spills and ecosystem recovery.