Fish Mortalities From Explosive Removal of Petroleum Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico 1993 to 1999 (NCEI Accession 0156750)

These data describe the first comprehensive study to quantitatively assess impacts of the explosive removal of offshore oil and gas structures on fish. The most severely impacted fish species at explosive structure removals in order of abundance were Atlantic spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber), blue runner (Caranx crysos), red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus), and sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus). These four species accounted for 86% of estimated mortality. Mortality estimates for red snapper were incorporated into stock assessment analyses. The impact of including explosive platform removal data was that abundance estimates were almost indistinguishable from the original assessment. The differences were well within the statistical estimation variances for the original assessment.