Scientists brace for oil impact

Researchers stationed on the Gulf Coast are bracing for the oil spill's impact on long-term study sites that are likely to be disturbed -- including taking special hazardous material training just to complete scheduled data collection. Image: National Oceanographic andAtmospheric AdministrationOil gushing from British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon well, which blew out on April 20 and has been spewing forth millions of barrels of petroleum since, has yet to make landfall in great quantities. But

Bob Grant

| 2 min read

Image: National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration

Oil gushing from British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon well, which blew out on April 20 and has been spewing forth millions of barrels of petroleum since, has yet to make landfall in great quantities. But marine scientists have already begun to brace for its impact on their ongoing projects. linkurl:Monty Graham,;http://faculty.disl.org/mgraham.html a biological oceanographer at Alabama's state-run Dauphin Island Sea Lab off the coast of Alabama, told __The Scientist__ that researchers are now training to handle hazardous materials. "We're rushing around trying to get HAZWOPER [Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard] training," he said. Graham is part of an intensive linkurl:six-year study;http://press.disl.org/PDFs/focal.pdf of fish larvae and plankton along a transect that reaches 55 km out into Gulf waters, where researchers sample at 3 meter increments in the water column monthly. Though Graham said that none of his sites have been disturbed yet, he's preparing for the worst. "I have this fear of August rolling around and we're slugged in nasty oil, and people in hazmat suits going out to sample," he said. "That's just unrealistic in August in Alabama. We'll have people dying of heat strokes, instead of from the oil." As the oil spill threatens an ecological catastrophe of untold dimensions, other Gulf Coast researchers are also dealing with the spill's deleterious effects on their work. "I've got a PhD student that's about to go nuts," said linkurl:Robert Twilley,;http://www.oceanography.lsu.edu/twilley.shtm director Louisiana State University's Coastal Marine Institute, about an advisee who is trying to finish her research on ecological succession in coastal plant communities adjacent to the spill. linkurl:Jim Franks,;http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/contacts/view_vitae.php?id=220 a fisheries biologist at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL), is heading out soon on a sampling trip to collect blue fin tuna larvae, his sixth data-collecting trip in as many years. "All of us who are going on the trip just concluded two days of hazmat training," he told __The Scientist__. "It was a requirement of all people here who are going to be involved with spilled oil in the coastal area." linkurl:Harriet Perry,;http://www.gulfbase.org/person/view.php?uid=hperry a colleague of Franks' and director of GCRL's Center for Fisheries Research and Development, said that the oil may disrupt her 35-year sampling of the Mississippi Sound and surrounding environments for larval crabs, shrimp, and fishes. "We're really very unsure if we'll be able to sample if oil does impact the Mississippi coast," she told __The Scientist__. "One thing we all do now is watch the weather and the winds. We spend an inordinate amount of time staring at satellite images."
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