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Oil Spills Wreak Havoc on the Bottom of the Ocean, Even a Decade Later

Across hundreds of miles of the northern Gulf of Mexico, a deepwater ecosystem collapsed after the massive 2011 Deepwater Horizon oil and gas spill, and recovery is uncertain, new research concludes.

在墨西哥湾北部数百英里的海域，一项新的研究得出结论：在2011年“深水地平线”石油和天然气泄漏事故发生后，深海生态系统已经崩溃，且恢复情况尚不确定。

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that animal populations—including octopus, krill, squid, and shrimp—declined by 60 to 85 percent in the three and a half years after the spill, with few signs of recovery since. Krill and lanternfish, both foundational species in the Gulf’s food web, were among the hardest hit. The findings also suggest that the die-off is causing genetic bottlenecks that could further hinder ecosystem recovery.

这项周一发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上的研究发现，在泄漏事故发生后的三年半里，包括章鱼、磷虾、鱿鱼和虾在内的动物种群数量下降了60%至85%，且此后几乎没有恢复的迹象。作为墨西哥湾食物网基础物种的磷虾和灯笼鱼受到的打击最为严重。研究结果还表明，这种大规模死亡正在导致遗传瓶颈，可能会进一步阻碍生态系统的恢复。

The researchers identified it as the “fastest and most severe faunal decline reported for Earth’s largest ecosystem type” ever documented. The widespread die-off of marine organisms may also reduce the ocean’s ability to transport carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea. After ruling out other factors, such as water temperature and oxygen levels, the researchers identified the Deepwater Horizon blowout as “the most parsimonious explanation” for the ecosystem’s collapse.

研究人员将其定性为“地球上最大的生态系统类型中有记录以来最快、最严重的动物群衰退”。海洋生物的大规模死亡也可能降低海洋将大气中的二氧化碳输送到深海的能力。在排除了水温和氧气水平等其他因素后，研究人员认为“深水地平线”井喷是导致该生态系统崩溃的“最合理的解释”。

Comprehensive natural resource damage assessments and restoration efforts involving federal, state, and tribal trustees are ongoing. In 2016, BP agreed to a $20.8 billion settlement, including up to $8.8 billion for environmental restoration.

涉及联邦、州和部落受托人的全面自然资源损害评估和恢复工作正在进行中。2016年，英国石油公司（BP）同意支付208亿美元的和解金，其中包括高达88亿美元的环境恢复费用。

Remote ocean depths and habitats miles below the surface may seem buffered from the impacts of human activity, the authors wrote, but their findings suggest an industrial disaster pushed part of it into a diminished state with “limited resilience to facilitate recovery.” They said their findings also show that proposed industrial deep-sea mining could damage the ecosystem before baseline conditions are assessed.

作者写道，遥远的深海和地表下数英里的栖息地似乎不受人类活动的影响，但他们的研究结果表明，一场工业灾难将其部分推向了一种“促进恢复的韧性有限”的衰退状态。他们表示，研究结果还表明，拟议的工业深海采矿可能会在基线条件得到评估之前就破坏生态系统。

A transoceanic drilling rig, operating for BP about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta, exploded on April 20, 2010. The explosion and fire killed 11 people and triggered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.

2010年4月20日，一座为英国石油公司作业、位于密西西比河三角洲东南约50英里处的跨洋钻井平台发生爆炸。爆炸和火灾造成11人死亡，并引发了历史上最大规模的意外海洋漏油事故。

Oil and gas spewed uncontrollably from the broken well nearly a mile deep for 87 days, ejecting 4.9 million barrels of oil at a rate of about 400 tanker trucks per day, enough to fill up 1.2 million cars. The spill also released about 7.7 billion cubic feet of fossil gas into the deep sea at a rate of 88 million cubic feet per day, enough to supply about 820,000 US homes. State and federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, also authorized BP to apply 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersants to try to reduce the impacts.

石油和天然气从近一英里深的破裂油井中不受控制地喷涌了87天，喷出了490万桶石油，每天的喷出量相当于约400辆油罐车，足以装满120万辆汽车。此次泄漏还向深海释放了约77亿立方英尺的化石气体，每天的释放量为8800万立方英尺，足以供应约82万个美国家庭。包括美国环境保护署在内的州和联邦机构还授权英国石油公司使用184万加仑的化学分散剂，试图减轻影响。

Some of the oil and gas dissipated and was transported out of the deep Gulf of Mexico region. Some coated barrier islands and devastated coastal wetlands and shellfish habitat, and some settled onto the ocean floor, where currents can stir it back into the water. But enough hydrocarbon and chemical-dispersant remnants stayed suspended long enough to do almost immeasurable harm.

部分石油和天然气消散并被输送出墨西哥湾深海区域。一些覆盖了屏障岛，摧毁了沿海湿地和贝类栖息地，还有一些沉入海底，洋流可能会将其重新搅动到水中。但仍有足够的碳氢化合物和化学分散剂残留物悬浮了足够长的时间，造成了几乎无法估量的损害。

A series of studies since the spill have shown a wide range of toxic effects on marine organisms, from impaired development and reproduction to increased mortality and lasting health problems in dolphins and whales. The new paper suggests that lingering pollutants may interfere with some species’ ability to find mates in the dark by disrupting their highly developed sense of smell.

自泄漏事故以来的一系列研究表明，其对海洋生物产生了广泛的毒性影响，从发育和繁殖受损，到海豚和鲸鱼死亡率增加及持久的健康问题。这篇新论文指出，残留的污染物可能会通过干扰某些物种高度发达的嗅觉，影响它们在黑暗中寻找配偶的能力。

The impacts continue to ripple through the ecosystem, said lead author Tracey Sutton, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. A 2024 study found an 80 percent decline in deep-diving toothed whales, he said.

佛罗里达州诺瓦东南大学海洋与环境科学教授、首席作者特雷西·萨顿（Tracey Sutton）表示，这些影响继续在生态系统中蔓延。他说，2024年的一项研究发现，深潜齿鲸的数量下降了80%。

“We used to have a big resident population of sperm whales right off the Mississippi River, but we haven’t seen a sperm whale in 10 years,” he said. Large predators need big, occasional dense patches of prey, and those have disappeared, he added.

“我们过去在密西西比河口附近有一个庞大的抹香鲸常驻种群，但我们已经10年没见过抹香鲸了，”他说。他补充道，大型捕食者需要偶尔出现的大片密集猎物，而这些猎物已经消失了。

Scientists have developed accurate ways to count fish. For this study, they started with a baseline from nine months of sampling in 2011 and compared it with nine subsequent surveys between 2015 and 2023. The researchers sampled deep-pelagic habitat along a large grid around the spill site from about 650 feet below the surface to about a mile down. The deep-pelagic zone accounts for about 90 percent of the Gulf’s total volume.

科学家们已经开发出精确的鱼类计数方法。在这项研究中，他们以2011年九个月的采样数据作为基线，并将其与2015年至2023年间的九次后续调查进行了比较。研究人员在泄漏点周围的一个大网格内对深海远洋栖息地进行了采样，采样深度从海面下约650英尺到约一英里深处。深海远洋区约占墨西哥湾总体积的90%。

Across a grid of stations, scientists on slippery decks lowered and hoisted nets that open and close at different depths, with experts from different species groups to identify the catch. They sampled around noon and midnight to account for species that migrate vertically each day. Ship-mounted scientific echosounders provided an independent check, measuring sound reflected by marine life in the water column.

在各个监测站，科学家们在湿滑的甲板上放下和收起在不同深度开合的网，并由不同物种组的专家来识别捕获物。他们在中午和午夜左右进行采样，以考虑到每天垂直迁徙的物种。船载科学回声测深仪提供了一种独立的检查方式，测量水体中海洋生物反射的声音。

The research is “comprehensive and carefully composed,” marine biologist Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, said via email. “There is no other study that I know of with such an incredible number of net samples,” added Robison, who did not participate in the new study.

蒙特利湾水族馆研究所的高级科学家、海洋生物学家布鲁斯·罗宾逊（Bruce Robison）通过电子邮件表示，这项研究“全面且构思严谨”。未参与这项新研究的罗宾逊补充说：“据我所知，没有其他研究拥有如此惊人的网采样数量。”

The research focuses on species that are not commercially fished and shows for the first time that human impacts can deplete marine life even in very deep ocean water, he said.

他说，这项研究关注的是非商业捕捞的物种，并首次表明人类活动甚至可以在非常深的海水中消耗海洋生物。

“It is important for the public to understand just how disastrous this oil spill was,” Robison said. “The Gulf has not recovered, and it’s been over 15 years.” Robison said other activities, such as deep-sea mining, could also have severe negative consequences for deepwater pelagic ecosystems by discharging wastewater containing metals or lubricants.

“公众必须了解这次漏油事件有多么灾难性，这一点很重要，”罗宾逊说。“墨西哥湾还没有恢复，而且已经过去15年了。”罗宾逊表示，其他活动，如深海采矿，通过排放含有金属或润滑剂的废水，也可能对深海远洋生态系统产生严重的负面影响。

Three lines of evidence—net hauls, acoustic surveys, and genetic sampling—corroborate each other, which is “unusually strong evidence to support his conclusions,” said Jeffrey Drazen, a marine ecologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who did not participate in the new study.

夏威夷大学马诺阿分校的海洋生态学家杰弗里·德拉岑（Jeffrey Drazen）表示，三条证据线——网捕、声学调查和遗传采样——相互印证，这是“支持其结论的异常强有力的证据”。他并未参与这项新研究。

The study examines all

该研究考察了所有