Monthly Archives: March 2016
Laura Timm examines connections among shellfish ecology and evolution to help scientists understand how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected certain Gulf of Mexico species: “My work focuses on establishing pre-spill baselines and comparing them to samples taken 3-7 years after the oil spill, providing a timeline of crustacean recovery.” Pursuing a Ph.D. in biology Read More
The Smithsonian Ocean Portal posted a blog that describes the needs and challenges of sharing scientific data, especially unique data collected after a disaster such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Featured are insights from Marcia McNutt, Editor-in-Chief of Science Magazine, and Chuck Wilson, Chief Scientist for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The blog Read More
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill initiated an unprecedented response effort and mobilized the largest, coordinated scientific research endeavor around an ocean-related event in history; the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). The Screenscope film production company is developing “Dispatches from the Gulf” to help tell the story about the scientists involved and their research to Read More
The Spring Boy Scouts Advance-A-Rama (AAR) program has been conducted for over 25 years by volunteers from the Northeast Georgia Council’s Cherokee District. The AAR is hosted by the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. In recent years, over 200 scouts from troops in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Read More
Click to view Information on Sea Grant Oil Spill Seminars in April 2016 These seminars will be streaming live so you can participate remotely. April 6 in Austin, TX: Chilling with your chums: How did the oil spill impact Gulf fisheries? Register here. More info here. April 14 in Mobile, AL: Where did the oil go? Register here. More info here.
Kelsey Rogers looks for evidence of oil and methane intrusion into Gulf of Mexico water and sediment, but finding these hydrocarbons is only the beginning of her work. Like a scientific crime scene investigator, Kelsey analyzes the chemical fingerprints of oil and gas and uses them to identify their source, such as from an oil Read More
The four Sea Grant Programs in the Gulf of Mexico region, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership jointly co-hosted an outreach workshop at the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference on February 1 in Tampa, FL, called Sharing Oil Spill Science with Non-Scientists: Effectively Communicating Read More
While Consortium for oil spill exposure pathways in Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE) researchers sampled the northern Gulf to determine the paths and impacts of river outflow, a pair of citizen scientists, also commercial fishers, assisted from their own vessels. Hoang Nguyen Van of D’Iberville, Mississippi, and George Barisich of Ycloskey, Louisiana—Captain Nguyen and Captain George—took Read More
Juan Pinales is working on a computational modelling system that will aid oil spill monitoring efforts. He combines Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and oceanographic conditions recorded during the Deepwater Horizon incident to improve surface oil detection using a semi-automated machine learning method known as artificial neural networking. This method will help the system’s computations Read More
The Sea Grant oil spill outreach team released three new informational brochures about the dispersants used to treat the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These brochures synthesize peer-reviewed oil spill science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast. Chemical Dispersants and Their Role in Oil Spill Read More