| LONG TERM EFFECTS ON DEVELOPMENT, SEX DIFFERENTIATION AND REPRODUCTION OF ATLANTIC COD (GADUS MORHUA) EXPOSED TO PRODUCED WATER DURING EARLY LIFE STAGES. |
| MEIER, Sonnich, Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, N-5817. Nordnes, Bergen, Norway. sonnich.meier@imr.no; Bjørn Einar Grøsvik1, H. Craig Morton1, Gunnar Nyhammer2, Audrey Geffen2, Anne Christine Knag2, Valeri Makhotin,3, Stepan Boitsov1 Jarle Klungsøyr1.
1 Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway; 2 University of Bergen, Norway; 3Department of Ichthyology, Moscow State University, Russia. |
| Produced water (PW) contains numerous toxic compounds, such as dispersed oil, metals, alkylphenols (APs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Here we describe the results of a study in which early life stages of cod were exposed to several concentration of real PW collected from an oil production platform in the North Sea. Cod were exposed to PW either during the embryo and early larvae stage (up to 3 months of age) or during the early juvenile stage (from 3 – 6 months of age). Following exposure, the fish were transferred to clean seawater and monitored for two years till sexual maturation. One group of fish from each exposure regimen was used in spawning experiments.
No effects on survival, growth or reproduction were observed in cod after early life long-term exposure to realistic concentrations of PW (0.1 % and 0.01 %). However, larvae exposed to 1 % PW showed an inability to start-feed, resulting in ≈100 % mortality. A significant up-regulation of VTG was observed in juvenile stages exposed to 1 % PW, showing that PW contains estrogenic compounds. No intersex or other disturbances in gonad development were observed, but the spawning experiment showed a reduction in the amount of eggs and a higher proportion of malformed embryos in the 1 % PW group.
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