Professor links mortality of iguanas to oil spill

By Steve Carr

UNM Biology Professor Howard Snell, in collaboration with several professors in the nation, has helped link the mortality of marine iguanas to an oil spill on the Galapagos island of Santa Fe.

The research “Marine Iguanas Die From Trace Oil Pollution,” published in the June 6 issue of Nature Magazine, establishes a link between the oil spill in January 2001 with a 62 percent mortality rate amongst the indigenous creatures the year after the “Jessica” oil tanker ran aground spilling approximately three million liters of diesel and bunker oil.

“Our first impression was that the biological diversity of the Galapagos had largely escaped harm from the Jessica spill,” said Snell. “In general that is true, but the work with Martin Wikelski and his other colleagues has confirmed subtle effects that take a long time to develop and can have serious impacts for components of the Galapagos fauna.”

Typically, the investigation of animal populations affected by environmental contamination usually begins following a spill in order to study the recovery process. But Snell, who spends spring semesters working at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in the Galapagos Islands as part of a collaborative agreement, and the foundation, was able to help Wikelski and other researchers who had accumulated long-term data.