Bioremediation on the Shore after an Oil Spill from the Nakhodka in the Sea of Japan. II. Toxicity of a Bioremediation Agent with Microbiological Cultures in Aquatic Organisms

We conducted two laboratory tests in order to investigate the potential toxicity of a seed culture of petroleum-degrading bacteria, TerraZymeTM (Oppenheimer Biotechnology), in aquatic organisms. One test involved the fertilization of sea urchin eggs in solutions of the bioremediation agent with five different concentrations (1, 5, 10, 50, 100 ppm). We also applied the same toxicity tests with solutions of an oil dispersant and a neutral detergent. The results indicated a far weaker negative impact of TerraZymeTM in the fertilization of gametes of a sea urchin than those of the oil dispersant and the neutral detergent. A second test dealt with the potential toxicity of TerraZymeTM in fish. We reared fish (Chromis viridis) in water containing TerraZymeTM for a week, and in separate experiments, fed ‘sweet fishʹ (Plecoglossus altevelis), food containing TerraZymeTM for a week in one experiment, and for a month in another experiment. In all cases, we were unable to discover a distinct negative impact on the aquatic organisms.