Although satellites and aircraft helped show the extent of the spill at the surface, researchers hoped that the AUV would allow them to understand what was happening farther down in the water column. The resulting data helped the researchers identify a persistent deep oil plume and link the oil in this plume to its source: the Deepwater Horizon blowout. To build models of oil movement at the surface, researchers first had to understand where ocean eddies, currents and waves carried the tiny oil particles.
This citizen science endeavor provided general information about how far the waves can carry a floating object and specific data points that can be used to improve models of where the oil disperses. Their location gets tracked for weeks or months at a time and provide an unprecedented amount of location-based data for modeling.
This information can be used to better predict oil movement in case of future spills, as well as predict other current-related movements like for marine debris and algal blooms. After the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil was mixed throughout the ocean and made its way to coastal and deep-sea sediments. Researchers continue to collect samples from both the water and the sediment to determine if oil is present, and where exactly it came from.
Chemical analysis of oil found after a spill can be used to determine its original source. In the case of Deepwater Horizon, tracking the origins of oil slicks that appeared after the well was capped proved helpful in determining if a new leak might have sprung. At the outset, the twenty-person GoMRI Research Board adopted five main research themes to focus on: physical movement of the oil and dispersant, degradation of the oil and its interaction with the ecosystem, environmental effects of the oil and dispersant, development of technology for improved response and remediation, and the effects of oil and dispersant on human health.
GoMRI-funded studies have examined where the oil went after the spill and how the oil affected many types of marine life, including deep-sea coral ecosystems, seabirds, and jellyfish, to name just a few. As scientists in the Gulf collect organisms potentially affected by the oil, they will need to compare them to animals from previous decades to identify how they have changed, if at all.
Here's where Smithsonian Collections can play a role. Soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Smithsonian Collections staff plotted invertebrate holdings from the Gulf onto Google Earth. Since , invertebrate specimens have been deposited in the national collections of the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Invertebrate Zoology. In the Gulf of Mexico, more than 57, invertebrates points on the map from 5, distinct collecting sites from 14 Mineral Management Service survey programs point colors have been cataloged.
Following the Deepwater Horizon incident in late April , collections staff updated the files to reflect the latest areas affected by the spill in real-time.
A Smithsonian study of a oil spill on the coast of Panama attracted renewed interest for its insights into the effects of oil spills on coastal systems.
The benchmark study PDF , published in , documented the damage oil causes to coastal and tidal habitats. It's particularly notable because it includes 15 years of ecological data about the area before the spill collected by the Smithsonian. The affected area includes the Smithsonian biological reserve known as the Galeta Marine Laboratory.
In this video interview with the Smithsonian Ocean Portal, he reflects on the Panama study and its implications for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and reminds listeners that the greatest threats to the ocean— overfishing , climate change , and other types of pollution —combined actually exceed the devastation that unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. At Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, Chris Reddy studies the long-term effects of oil spills, as well as natural oil seeps that occur off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.
In this video , watch as he digs beneath the surface in Wild Harbor salt marsh in Cape Cod, Massachusetts to find layers of oil from a spill that occurred more than 40 years ago. This leftover oil continues to impact the wetland's ecology and wildlife. And to the naked eye, the marsh looks beautiful and pristine. Reddy testified before a Congressional panel investigating the Gulf oil spill.
In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, concerns about public health focused on people coming into direct contact with the oil and dispersants. A recent study discovered dispersants had an unintended benefit during the initial oil cleanup. As the dispersant broke apart the oil into smaller droplets it also decreased the amount of harmful gases that rose to the sea surface where emergency cleanup crews were working.
This decreased the health risks associated with working near the spill, reduced the number of days where it was too hazardous to work, and enabled a quicker cleanup. However, long-term questions about oil spills and their impact on human health remain. The National Institutes of Health began to address these in a study that is tracking 33, cleanup workers and volunteers for a decade. The research will assess whether exposure to crude oil and dispersants has an effect on physical and mental health.
As the days, weeks, and months progressed the indirect impacts related to seafood consumption also gained attention. The chemicals in oil that are of most concern to humans are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs. Some of these are known to cause cancer.
The U. It works in conjunction with NOAA, the EPA, and state agencies to determine which fisheries are safe to open and which ones should be closed. In order for a fishery to be reopened, it must pass both a "smell" test and a chemical analysis. Seafood cannot go to market if it contains harmful levels of PAHs or if it emits an odor associated with petroleum or dispersants.
Fishing area closures peaked on June 2, , when 88, square miles of the Gulf of Mexico were off-limits. On April 19, , NOAA announced that commercial and recreational fishing could resume in all of the federal waters that were affected by the spill. Nine years after the spill, the National Academy of Science determined that dispersant impacts on seafood were extremely low, citing studies that found dispersant chemical concentrations to be low or nonexistent in fish and shellfish.
Pictures of pelicans, sea turtles, and other Gulf of Mexico wildlife struggling in oil were among some of the most disturbing images of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in According to the U.
National Zoo personnel were dispatched to the Gulf largely to assist with the process of relocating animals affected by the spill and helping to identify future release sites for those rescued. Luis Padilla, a Zoo veterinarian who helped with a pelican release in Texas, and Dr.
The Commission recommended that the EIS be expanded to include a much more thorough vetting of possible alternatives that could reduce impacts on dolphin stocks, along with a discussion of whether each such alternative is practicable and would be consistent with the purposes of the project see comments below. Health assessments of bottlenose dolphins from oil spill-affected areas revealed lung and adrenal gland injuries consistent with oil exposure. Under the Oil Pollution Act, BP and the other parties responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are liable for costs associated with the removal of oil i.
The responsible parties are also subject to civil and criminal monetary penalties under the Clean Water Act , which must be deposited in the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to be used for future oil spill clean-up activities. Those funds are not available for addressing damages caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill or for restoration activities.
The Trust Fund is being used to fund restoration of natural resources and economic recovery in the Gulf Coast region. The allocation of the Trust Fund has five components. These funds are to be dispersed in grants to complement and expand Gulf restoration efforts. To date, the NFWF Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund has awarded grants to Alabama , Florida , and Mississippi to increase research, data collection, and stranding response capacity for Gulf marine mammals and sea turtles.
The committee provided its guidance for restoration, assessment, and synthesis in its report on Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico Alliance GOMA is a partnership of the five Gulf states and other organizations whose goal is to increase regional collaboration to enhance the environmental and economic health of the Gulf. GOMA has developed the Deepwater Horizon Project Tracker as a tool to track restoration, research, and recovery projects resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System GCOOS provides observational data, models, and products for a wide variety of users in the Gulf region, and is integrated with other regional coastal ocean observing systems to create an integrated and sustained U.
Sea Grant in the Gulf of Mexico provides information to help increase knowledge and awareness of oil spill science topics, including the impacts of the oil spill on bottlenose dolphins and other wildlife.
Letter to the U. Letter to the Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group on its draft restoration plan 2 and environmental assessment: Fish, sea turtles, marine mammals, and mesophotoic and deep benthic communitees. Letter to BOEM on its request for information on the development of a long-term monitoring plan for marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico. Fish and Wildlife Service on the programmatic environmental impact statement PEIS to evaluate the environmental consequences of restoration projects and newly planned projects following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Letter to NMFS on recommendations and rationale to assist the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council in developing a restoration plan to address injuries from the oil spill, including those to marine mammals and their habitats.
The objectives of the meeting were to: Provide an overview of marine mammal stocks and human activities. Review marine mammal research and monitoring programs. Identify high priority, overarching marine mammal data needs for the next years. Discuss options for collaborations to facilitate long-term research planning, information sharing, and capacity building. Marine mammal injury assessment studies were conducted from to and included: Aerial surveys to track changes in abundance and shifts in spatial distribution relative to baseline pre-spill conditions.
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A small air force took to the skies to coat the slick with chemicals meant to break it up and sink it to the sea floor. Other pockets of oil were set ablaze in flames visible from outer space.
By the time it was over, more than 2, kilometers of coast would be fouled in oil and marine life would be devastated. Thousands were put out of work in fisheries, tourism and energy. In the end, it would prove to be 12 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in , the previous record holder.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster signaled the risks of drilling for oil in one of the most culturally significant, ecologically diverse places in the world.
Take, for instance, the fish — which researchers at the University of South Florida say are still contaminated with hydrocarbons. Take the size of the spill itself, which a recent study has found to be far more extensive than initially thought, reaching as far as the southernmost tip of Florida.
Oil on Gulf waters after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Credit: Jonathan Henderson. Take, too, the continuing impact the spill had on human health. According to a government health study published seven years after the spill, tens of thousands of workers who first responded to the study are still wrestling with respiratory illnesses brought on by Corexit, the chemical used to disperse the spill.
And take that many of those who were affected by that chemical — mostly lower-income fisherman — are still ill, or have gone on to die. The more time that passes, the worse the spill seems to become, begging the question — could something like this happen again? As oil drilling moves farther offshore and deeper at sea, they say, the risk only increases. Some 17 percent of the oil produced in the United States comes from the Gulf of Mexico.
Over 1, platforms are connected to refineries along the shore through more than 41, kilometers of pipelines. Leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused oil prices to plummet, Gulf production continued to be remarkably robust. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the US interior department restructured in a bid to allow a new division of the agency, the bureau of safety and environmental enforcement, or BSEE, to focus on safety.
The move was meant to separate safety regulators from government officials who might be more motivated by the money coming in from taxes on drilling. Crucially, the Obama administration also beefed up safety rules for the offshore oil industry, including checks on blowout preventers like the one that failed on the Deepwater Horizon.
But those rules have been weakened under the Trump administration.
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