Impact of diluted bitumen on young sockeye salmon deadly, says Guelph study
VICTORIA — A spill of diluted bitumen puts the survival of young salmon at risk even if the fish end up in clean water following exposure to the oil product, says new research from the University of Guelph.
Researchers said they made the conclusions after exposing four groups of sockeye salmon eggs to four different amounts of water soluble diluted bitumen and observed the young fish after the eggs hatched for up to eight months in clean water.
“We saw a lot of changes during the exposure,” said Sarah Alderman, a post-doctorate researcher at the University of Guelph’s department of integrative biology. “We found a whole suite of effects from delayed hatching to increased mortality, increased developmental deformities and changes in growth and energy stores in the fish.”
The results are based on the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons measured in the water, which are a major toxic component of petroleum products, said Alderman.