深水地平线泄漏16年后 墨西哥湾深海生物恢复缓慢

2010年深水地平线石油钻井平台爆炸事故造成超过400万桶石油泄漏到墨西哥湾，一项新发表的研究表明，该地区深海生物的恢复迹象仍然微弱。1

根据基于声学调查和数千个网样本的研究，泄漏发生后的最初几年内，章鱼、鱿鱼、磷虾、虾和灯鱼等深海物种种群下降了至少60%，至今尚未出现明显恢复迹象。1受影响区域的遗传多样性也有所下降。1研究人员在鱿鱼、章鱼肉体和深海鱼卵中检测到了与石油相关的化合物。1这项研究已发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。1

A new study reveals that deep-sea ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico remain far from recovering more than a decade and a half after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The 2010 explosion of the offshore drilling platform released over 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf 1. Research based on acoustic surveys and thousands of net samples across a wide area of the Gulf found that populations of octopuses, squid, krill, shrimp, and lanternfish declined by at least 60 percent in the years following the spill, with no clear signs of rebound evident today 1. Additionally, genetic diversity among these deep-sea organisms has decreased 1.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documented the extent of contamination persisting in the deep waters—defined as depths ranging from approximately 600 feet to more than two miles below the surface 1. Scientists detected oil-related compounds in the tissue of squid and octopuses, as well as in deep-sea fish eggs 1. The continued presence of these contaminants and the slow recovery trajectory underscore the prolonged impact of the environmental catastrophe on the Gulf's deep-sea fauna.