In the event of an oil spill occurring in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, the effects on the environment will directly affect plants and animals, on species being the Alaskan Pink Salmon. Salmon is one of the “most abundant species and foundation of the commercial fisheries in Alaska” (Brannon 20). The effect that an oil spill can have on this species can not only cause damages to this industry but the salmon itself.

The pink salmon have a rather short 2-year life cycle thus concluding that the risk that an oil spill could have on their overall life is rather high. The factors that make this risk high is all the possible effects it can have on reproduction process, eggs, overall life cycle including stages, and current adult salmon. …show more content…
The spill effects on pink salmon are high and can lead to mortality that will reduce the population dramatically. Results that this “chronic toxicity of weather oil” will have can have long-term effects that will take years to restore (Brannon 21). Throughout this article, we will address the long terms effects and a possible resolution.

Effects on the Life Cycle
The Pink Salmon goes through six stages throughout its life before becoming an adult. These stages include egg, Alevin, Fry, Parr, Smolt, Adult, and lastly, Spawning Adult. In the event of an oil spill, this life cycle is affected resulting in egg mortality, egg viability, and slower development in the early life stages. Resulting in the corruption of the life cycle itself. This affects the individual salmon’s life and the whole species population.

Early Life …show more content…
The absorption of this toxin causes many effects in some of the important stages of a salmon’s early life. This effect starts with the egg resulting in mortality. “The percentage attributed to oil death (236,360 eggs) exceeds the entire fecundity of the native population (129,000 eggs) in those intertidal streams” (Brannon 28). The mortality includes eggs who experienced exposed to oil in their embryonic stage. “Low mortality occurred in all of the egg lots” (Brannon 34). This statement infers that not all pink salmon eggs consequence to egg mortality in some cases it just effects the development. For eggs that survive the embryonic stage the effect is slower development. For example, instead of an egg taking 3 months to hatch it could twice as long or even more. The Fry being the other main stage that is affected by the exposer to oil. The fry is the third stage of a salmon’s life cycle and the last stage of the early life cycle. A result found is the disfigurement. Through the consumption of oil, the fry will become bloated and the eyes to bulge. This will cause the fry to have health problems and even blindness. This disfigurement can result in mortality and in the end, affect the population of the pink salmon. Therefore, making it a long-term effect that could impact the production of commercial fisheries in the present and years after that could take years to