Impacts of Oil Spill Disasters on Marine Habitats and Fisheries in North America

At an increasingly global scale, aquatic scientists are heavily entrenched in understanding the fate of marine ecosystems in the face of human-altered environments. Oil spill disasters, especially large-scale tragedies like Exxon Valdez (EV) and Deepwater Horizon (DWH), have left uncertain and indelible marks on marine ecosystems. This reference addresses EV impacts to the Prince William Sound ecosystem 20-years later, chronic effects to pink salmon, waterfowl and sea otters, and the collapse of the herring fishery.

J. Brian Alford is currently an assistant professor at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. He holds a BS and MS from the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, USA, and a Ph.D from Mississippi State University, Starkville, USA. He previously worked as an environmental scientist for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Jackson, USA; field technician at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA; research coordinator at Mississippi State University for assessing post-Hurricane Katrina restoration of catfish and largemouth bass fisheries in the Pascagoula River Basin; and fisheries research biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Baton Rouge, USA.

Mark S. Peterson is a professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, USA. His current research projects in the university’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory include: developing ecosystem-based management tools (field monitoring, GIS, modeling) to evaluate habitat use and recruitment success of fishes in coastal ecosystems; evaluating the influence of altered/fragmented, partially-altered/fragmented, and near-pristine salt-marsh tidal creeks on diversity, community structure, and food web structure of fishes using traditional and stable isotope methodology; quantifying size-related movement patterns and critical habitat characteristics of threatened Gulf sturgeon including large-scale connectivity of eastern and western populations; and more.

Christopher C. Green is an associate professor at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, USA. He holds a BS from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA; MS from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, USA; and Ph.D from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA. Dr. Green’s lab at the LSU Agricultural Center (AgCenter) focuses on applied reproductive fish physiology and endocrinology, with an emphasis on freshwater and estuarine aquaculture species. A popular reviewer, Dr. Green has served on the editorial board of the North American Journal of Aquaculture and as co-editor of the second edition of Cryopreservation of Aquatic Species.