Mortality, growth metrics and lipid composition of embryonic and juvenile Pacific herring for Prince William Sound in Alaska, 2018

This dataset describes the effects of oil exposure on juvenile pacific herring, to address the hypothesis that oil exposure significantly reduces the ability of juvenile herring to survive their first winter and contribute to the population as reproductive adults (recruitment). This data set consists of 14 files describing cardiovascular health of herring exposed to oil, herring mortality, body metrics and fatty acid composition, juvenile and larval growth metrics, lipid development over time and overwinter in distinct herring populations, swim performance, and mortality information for oiled and unoiled herring exposed to viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) and infection by Ichthyophonus. This data was collected as part of NPRB project 1712, “Reduced recruitment of Pacific herring due to oil spill impacts on early development, growth, and disease resistance”. The herring population in Prince William Sound (PWS) crashed 3 to 4 years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS), and has not recovered. Although a role for the spill in the rapid decline of herring was never determined, population-level effects were demonstrated on fish that were easier to study, such as pink salmon. This project found that herring are much more sensitive to toxicity from oil exposure than previously known. Exposure of developing herring embryos to extremely low levels of crude oil (oil compounds measured at parts per trillion) caused them to grow into outwardly normal looking juvenile fish that had subtly malformed hearts and reduced cardio-respiratory performance (physical capacity).