Toxicity of oil dispersant, crude oil and dispersed crude oil to a marine amphipod and gastropod

The importance of appropriate oil spill remedial action was emphasized during the recent Iron Barron oil spill off of the Tamar river in North Tasmania. One important potential oil spill response is dispersion, but little information exists on the toxicity of dispersants and dispersed oil to Australian marine species. This research was undertaken to assess the acute toxicity of Corexit 9527 (a widely used dispersant), water accommodated fractions of Bass Strait crude oil and dispersed Bass Strait crude oil, to the saltwater amphipod, Allorchestes compressa under semi-static conditions. Acute 96 h LC50's were determined for each toxicant as well as for the reference toxicants sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and zinc sulfate. Sublethal bioassays were undertaken for the same 3 toxicants utilizing the marines and snail Polinices conicus as the test species. No-observed-effect-concentrations (NOEC) and lowest-observed-effect-concentrations (LOEC) were determined using ANOVA while EC50's and EC0's were calculated using regression analysis. Mean acute 96 h LC50 (S.E.) values for A. compressa exposed to SDS and zinc sulfate were 3.6 mg/l (0.28) and 41.6 mg/l (9.01) respectively. EC50 (S.E.) concentrations for P. conicus exposed to SDS and zinc sulfate for 30 minutes were 44.7 mg/l and 246 mg/l respectively using burying behavior as an endpoint. These sublethal EC50's were reduced to 20.7 mg/l for SDS and 23.5 mg/l for zinc sulfate following 24 hours of exposure