Gulfcast: Dispatches From The Gulf

Recent polls show that more people than ever before do not trust science or believe scientists. Scientists Sean Powers, John Hildebrand, Kait Frasier, Margaret Leinen, and Tamay Özgökmen share their thoughts on the role science plays in society and their obligation to provide objective information about the impact of humans and how the world works. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Since 2010, hundreds of scientists have been researching the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Some are optimistic; some less so. But all agree that it is critical to continue to study and monitor the Gulf to understand the full impact in the decades to come. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Marine snow is made up of particles of tiny algae, plants, feces, and pieces of dead animals. These particles get colonized by organisms and become the food web that is transported to the deep ocean. Biological oceanographer Uta Passow’s research focuses on how oil affects marine snow and how marine snow affects oil. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Cynthia Smith (NMMF) is a marine mammal veterinarian. She and her team are responsible for the medical care and well-being of the US Navy’s dolphin population in San Diego. Dr. Smith is applying what she has learned about the Navy’s dolphins to the conservation of their wild counterparts — particularly in the Gulf of Mexico where their population has been struggling with low fertility and failed pregnancies. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Bay Jimmy, Louisiana is one of many small bays in the Mississippi River Delta whose marshes were hit hard by Deepwater Horizon oil. Professor Sunshine Van Bael and her team at Tulane University collect samples from Bay Jimmy to determine how plants and bacteria work together to break down oil and clean up buried pockets in the marshes. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

The seas have calmed and the LASER crew is able to drop the drifters – about a 1,000 in total. Their GPS chips will relay location data back to servers in Miami for the next three months. The data the team collects will go a long way towards improving computer models of ocean currents and hopefully mitigate effects of future oil spills. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

The Gulf of Mexico isn’t the stormiest place in the world, but 2016 was an El Nino year and several severe storms that created waves as high as 10 feet rocked the LASER crew. Each member reacted to the extreme conditions differently. Getting seasick together is quite a bonding experience. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, it was difficult to know where the oil might end up. The LASER team’s goal was to study how the oil spreads out via ocean currents, so they could create predictive models for future spills. Thousand of drifters would be required to execute the experiment, but existing drifters were extremely expensive due to the GPS component. Two years were spent designing specialized drifters into a low-cost, packable version that performs well in the open ocean and is biodegradable. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

In January 2016, an international team of scientists assembled for a 31-day research mission to track ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico and then process the data in the months afterwards. Nicknamed the LASER Cruise, the scope of the project was enormous. So how do you manage such an incredible undertaking with so many facets? You get someone like oceanographer Eric D’Asaro to be your chief scientist. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Kelly Dorgan is a senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. She and her team are studying the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the animals – like clams and worms – that live in the sediments of Louisiana’s Chandeleur Islands. These “muck-dwellers” are crucial to the ecosystem. They regenerate nutrients that create healthy sea grasses and marshes, while also serving as food for fish populations. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Scott Rikard manages the hatchery at Auburn University’s Shellfish Laboratory, which produces millions of oysters every year. Scott and his team cultivate oysters for a variety of purposes — some for research and others for aquaculture farms and wild reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. Their research examines the effects of freshwater releases on oyster populations. The ultimate goal is to help the ecosystem recover, which in turn assists the seafood industry. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Kait Frasier (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) is a pioneer in bioacoustics. She’s part of a research team that is studying how Gulf dolphins and whales are faring since Deepwater Horizon by examining the sounds and calls they make. Using more than six years of underwater recordings, she tracks which species were present at the time of the spill and how they are functioning in their habitat in th present day. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Jon Moore and his team from Florida Atlantic University have been studying animals at six different depths in the Gulf of Mexico — all the way from the surface to about 1500 meters down. Their research has added nearly 70 new species to the list of fish in the Gulf, which can be exciting, but also tricky and tedious — like in the case of the fanged, luminescent viperfish. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Kristen Thyng is a research professor at Texas A&M University, where she’s put a background in physics and math to study transport modeling of oil in the Texas and Louisiana shelf. Dr. Thyng uses complex models based on thousands of field measurements to run what are called “drifters” through possible ocean current scenarios. Essentially, these models let her make a very educated guess where a message in a bottle — or a patch of oil — would end up if you dropped it anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Tony Amos, a research fellow at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, has a unique voice in the story of the Gulf’s health. For nearly 40 years, he has been walking the beaches of Mustang Island, Texas recording data about the species and human disruption that he sees. This work led Amos to start the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK), an organization that rehabilitates and re-releases injured animals. [https://utmsi.utexas.edu/about/facilities/ark] NOTE: Dr. Amos passed away in 2017. For a full tribute to his life and work, please read "A Life Dedicated to Saving Sea Turtles and Shorebirds" in Audubon Magazine (https://www.audubon.org/magazine/winter-2017/a-life-dedicated-saving-sea-turtles-and)

Graduate students Jana Herrmann and Carla Culpepper work in the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory studying the diets of larval fish. They’re using zooplankton – tiny animals that float in the ocean and feed baby fish – to look for oil contamination in fish populations. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Piers Chapman (TAMU) has been studying oil spills for decades and has taken what may be considered a controversial viewpoint about oil spills in the wake of Deepwater Horizon. While he agrees that keeping oil off of beaches and out of marshes is an important part of spill response, he thinks that the best solution for oil in the open ocean is to leave it alone and do nothing. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Rafaelle Montuoro (Texas A&M University) uses super computers to run complex numerical models of oceanic and atmospheric systems — called coupled models — to see how they interact. Although it’s not quite rocket science it is just about as complicated. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

Dr. Noshir Pesika (Tulane University) and Dr. Claire Paris-Limouzy (University of Miami) are working to understand the effects of dispersants sprayed during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Dispersants are chemicals meant to help the cleanup effort by breaking oil apart into smaller droplets and keeping it from sticking to other surfaces. |||||||||||||||||||| NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.

We often think of our planet as well studied and well understood. But even researchers at the cutting edge of the field, like Dr. Tracey Sutton (NSU), have to admit that we know very little about the deep ocean. Sutton and his team have been working for years to better understand the creatures that live in the depths. Below 200 meters things start to get weird. NOTE: Science is continually evolving. To see the latest research updates on this topic, please visit the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) web site at gulfresearchinitiative.org.