DURHAM, N.C.  – In the wake of the 2010 BP oil spill, strategic national research plans and investments are needed to guide U.S. agencies tasked with managing the recovery of jeopardized species, according to peer-reviewed commentary in the Feb. 4 issue of Science by a team of scientists including Larry B. Crowder, director of the Duke Center for Marine Conservation.

“Achieving mandated recovery goals depends on understanding both population trends and the demographic processes that drive those trends,” Crowder and his fellow scientists write.  Currently, however, agencies such as the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lack this critical data, “so recovery cannot be measured.”

The BP oil spill could have affected 20 percent of the year’s Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae because it occurred during spawning. But the loss is difficult to assess, because the tuna’s migratory paths, reproductive habits and early life history aren’t well documented. Likewise, the long-term effects of the spill on loggerhead sea turtles and other sea turtle species can’t be evaluated.  “Nest counts in the United States continue to provide essential data for population assessments, but critical data gaps, especially in the demographic parameters, exist,” the scientists explain.

In their commentary, which is online at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6017/537.full, the scientists note that it is not too late to invest funds from BP’s multi-million settlement to support efforts to identify, prioritize and collect the essential data.

They propose seven key elements should be part of any research plans. These are: Integrate demography and abundance trends for multiple life stages and determine environmental effects on those parameters; emphasize analyses of cumulative effects; elucidate links among and within populations; revise the permitting processes; encourage data sharing; improve assessment tools for evaluation of anthropogenic impacts on populations; and prioritize investments.

“We know how to create these research plans – what has been missing is the political will and leadership to do so and to fulfill our responsibilities under the U.S. Endangered Species, Marine Mammal Protection, and Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Acts,” the scientists conclude.  “Agencies should focus resources and expertise on research that identifies why populations change and that enables modeling future impacts.  In the wake of the BP oil spill, the need for this policy shift is as clear as it is compelling.”

Crowder is Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Karen A. Bjorndal of the University of Florida’s Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research and Department of Biology is corresponding author of the Science commentary.