Gulf fisheries supported resilience in the decade following unparalleled oiling

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DwH) disaster challenged the integrity of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) large-marine ecosystem at unprecedented scales, prompting concerns of devastating injury for GOM fisheries in the post-spill decade. Following the catastrophe, projected economic losses for regional commercial, recreational, and mariculture sectors for the decade after oiling were US$3.7–8.7 billion overall, owing to the vulnerability of economically prized, primarily nearshore taxa that support fishing communities. State and federal fisheries data during 2000–2017 indicated that GOM fishery sectors appeared to serve as remarkable anchors of resilience following the largest accidental marine oil spill in human history. Evidence of post-disaster impacts on fisheries economies was negligible. Rather, GOM commercial sales during 2010–2017 were US$0.8–1.5 billion above forecasts derived using pre-spill (2000–2009) trajectories, while pre- and post-spill recreational fishery trends did not differ appreciably. No post-spill shifts in target species or effort distribution across states were apparent to explain these findings. Unraveling the mechanisms for this unforeseen stability represents an important avenue for understanding the vulnerability or resilience of human–natural systems to future disturbances. Following DwH, the causes for fishery responses are likely multifaceted and complex (including exogenous economic forces that typically affect fisheries-dependent data), but appear partially explained by the relative ecological stability of coastal fishery assemblages despite widespread oiling, which has been corroborated by multiple fishery-independent surveys across the northern GOM. Additionally, we hypothesize that damage payments to fishermen led to acquisition or retooling of commercial fisheries infrastructure, and subsequent rises in harvest effort. Combined, these social–ecological dynamics likely aided recovery of stressed coastal GOM communities in the years after DwH, although increased fishing pressure in the post-spill era may have consequences for future GOM ecosystem structure, function, and resilience

Tropical cyclone impacts on seagrass-associated fishes in a temperate-subtropical estuary

Major storms can alter coastal ecosystems in several direct and indirect ways including habitat destruction, stormwater-related water quality degradation, and organism mortality. From 2010–2020, ten tropical cyclones impacted coastal North Carolina, providing an opportunity to explore ecosystem responses across multiple storms. Using monthly trawl and contemporaneous seagrass surveys conducted in Back Sound, NC, we evaluated how cyclones may affect the nursery role of shallow-water biogenic habitats by examining seagrass-associated fish responses within a temperate-subtropical estuary. We employed a general before-after-control-impact approach using trawls conducted prior (before) and subsequent (after) to storm arrival and years either without (control) or with (impact) storms. We examined whether effects were apparent over short (within ~three weeks of impact) and seasonal (May-October) timescales, as well as if the magnitude of storm-related shifts varied as a function of storm intensity. Our findings suggest that the ability of these shallow-water habitats to support juvenile fishes was not dramatically altered by hurricanes. The resilience exhibited by fishes was likely underpinned by the relative persistence of the seagrass habitat, which appeared principally undamaged by storms based upon review of available–albeit limited seagrass surveys. Increasing cyclone intensity, however, was correlated with greater declines in catch and may potentially underlie the emigration and return rate of fish after cyclones. Whether estuarine fishes will continue to be resilient to acute storm impacts despite chronic environmental degradation and predicted increases major tropical cyclone frequency and intensity remains a pressing question