The Open Fish Science Journal

2011, 4 : 1-9
Published online 2011 December 06. DOI: 10.2174/1874401X01104010001
Publisher ID: TOFISHSJ-4-1

Successful Discrimination Using Otolith Microchemistry Among Samples of Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus from Artificial Reefs and Samples of L.campechanus Taken from Nearby Oil and Gas Platforms

Lauren Nowling , R.W. Gauldie , J. H. Cowan, Jr. and E. De Carlo
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-7503, USA.

ABSTRACT

A total of 98 Lutjanus campechanus otoliths were analyzed by ICPMS from collections made from both artificial reefs and oil and gas platforms in Alabama and Louisiana over a two-year period from 2002 to 2003. The 15 stable isotopes analyzed in this study were 51V, 59Co, 62Ni , 64Zn, 66Zn, 65Cu, 107Ag, 109Ag, 110Cd, 111Cd, 114Cd, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb and 238U. This suite of elements was chosen because they were most likely to be present at oil and gas platforms in the metals and other materials used in artificial reefs, and in the circulating heavy “muds” used while drilling wells. A series of statistical analyses were performed to establish the statistical structure of the data. Linear and stepwise discriminant analyses were performed to show that by using subsets of all the elements measured, it was possible to discriminate among artificial reefs and oil and gas platforms at average misclassification rates of the order of 10%.

Keywords:

Lutjanus campechanus, otolith, chemistry.