Tag Archives: Community Response

Fact Sheet: Creating Healthy Communities to Overcome Oil Spill Disasters

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Ever wonder how individuals and communities can best recover from an oil spill? Check out our latest fact sheet. Find out what can we do to help communities during and after an oil spill.

Human-caused disasters, such as accidental oil spills, tend to break down even the strongest communities. Impacts to human health, the environment, and the economy – whether real or perceived – may lead to additional stress and anxiety among community members.

Click here to download.

Link to SeaGrants publications.

This work was made possible in part by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and in part by the Sea Grant programs of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi-Alabama. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.

Sea Grant Releases Fact Sheet on Community Response to Oil Spills

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team released a publication that discusses how communities respond to a human-induced incident such as an oil spill as compared to natural disasters. Both types of events can affect the environment, economy, and human health; however, how people respond tends to be different.

Social scientists documented a series of shared effects on residents of the five U.S. Gulf Coast states following the Deepwater Horizon incident. They noted that unlike natural disasters when people tend to come together and help one another, human-induced incidents and related response efforts tend to cause discord. Feelings of stress, anger, and mistrust arise in affected communities, particularly among groups who feel their livelihoods threatened.

The fact sheet Creating healthy communities to overcome oil spill disasters outlines why scientists think certain groups exhibit these feelings and explains research about helping to alleviate or prevent these responses. The fact sheet also contains helpful links to organizations that can offer more information for individuals living in the aftermath of a human-induced incident like an oil spill.

Some of the information in this fact sheet came from earlier, more in-depth Sea Grant publications:

The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team synthesizes peer-reviewed science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast. Sea Grant offers oil-spill-related public seminars across the Gulf Coast.

Information about upcoming Sea Grant science seminars and recently-held events is available here. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team or to ask a question, click here. To learn more about their work, visit their website.

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GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas) have partnered to create an oil spill science outreach program.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Get to Know CRGC Grad Student Patel

4594 Megha Patel is a social work Ph.D. student at Tulane University and a member of the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC)’s Community Action Planning and Resilience Building efforts.

Learn more about her background and research interests here.

Grad Student Parks Assesses How Disasters and Social Factors Influence Human Health

Vanessa inside a helicopter at a heliport in Cut Off, LA, where offshore oil workers commute to and from work. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

A person’s socioeconomic position can influence their health and well-being, and disasters can place additional strain on those whose health and well-being are already compromised.

Vanessa Parks compiles and analyzes data on Gulf Coast communities that explores how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected mental and physical health and how social factors contributed to post-disaster health outcomes. “I am interested in what contributes to better health outcomes, because I want to help reduce health inequalities and inequities,” Vanessa said. “If residents have access to better economic resources and health care, they are better prepared for the traumatic impacts of disasters.”

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in Louisiana State University’s sociology program and a GoMRI Scholar with the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC).

Her Path

RGC group photo at the Cut Off, LA, heliport. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Growing up, Vanessa was acutely aware of the public health concerns facing her hometown of Memphis, including high obesity rates, teen pregnancy, and HIV infection. However, those concerns rarely affected her affluent and largely white suburb. She first encountered the interrelationship between socioeconomic position and health working as a part-time clerk at a bankruptcy law firm while attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She noticed that many clients declared bankruptcy because they were unable to pay their medical bills, even if they previously had one or more stable, well-paying jobs. She realized that a person needs a deep reservoir of resources, as being sick or disabled can impair one’s ability to find work while medical expenses accrue.

Vanessa enrolled in the University of Mississippi’s sociology masters’ program and studied the role that social and economic factors play in a person’s health. She conducted numerous program evaluations related to health, education, and workforce development in the Mississippi Delta. She continues to explore the link between socioeconomic factors and health as a sociology Ph.D. student at LSU. CRGC received funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) soon after Vanessa began her doctoral program in 2014, and she was eager to get involved. She met Dr. Rajeev Ramchand through the program and joined his research group studying human health and well-being as it relates to environmental stressors.

Her Work

Vanessa and fellow GoMRI Scholar Jacqueline Fiore in front of a CRGC poster at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference. (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Vanessa’s research focuses on the mental and physical health of Gulf Coast communities who recently suffered from a major hurricane (Katrina) and the largest oil spill in U.S history (Deepwater Horizon). She began her research with a literature review of 1,477 medical publications documenting oil spills’ known health impacts and compiled the data into a searchable, publicly available database. Her research group used this information to develop the Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG). This survey was a household-level assessment of Deepwater Horizon impacts on social, economic, and health indices for coastal counties and parishes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Vanessa also prepared a detailed guide to assist researchers when utilizing the survey data, including narrative information and relevant citations.

Vanessa and her team compiled STRONG survey data collected from approximately 2,500 Gulf residents. She is analyzing the survey data to investigate how factors such as occupation and community relationships contribute to the way a disaster impacts a person’s health, particularly mental health. The results of her research will help health care providers, community leaders, and policy makers make informed decisions to improve health-related outcomes when future disasters happen.

Her Learning

Vanessa (center) touring a seafood processing plant in Bayou La Batre, AL, with fellow CRGC grad students, Amanda Edelman (left) and Chelsea Adams (right). (Provided by Vanessa Parks)

Vanessa’s use of medical journals for her literature review of oil spills’ health impacts introduced her to public health research methods and helped her identify how social scientists might use this knowledge. “It showed me the enormous potential of my work to inform other researchers, community leaders, and healthcare professionals,” said Vanessa.

Presenting her research at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference was another learning opportunity for Vanessa. It was her group’s first opportunity to share the STRONG survey’s findings publicly with a broad audience. While preparing her presentation, she solicited feedback from colleagues in diverse fields and incorporated their suggestions. Despite feeling nervous, the experience improved Vanessa’s self-confidence as a researcher. “Sometimes we only want to focus on one perspective, theory, or method, but it’s extremely important to integrate others’ expertise,” she said.

Her Future

Vanessa intends to pursue a career conducting applied interdisciplinary research and work with needs-based research projects addressing disparities in health and well-being. She advises students considering a career in science to be flexible and open to new opportunities. “[Conducting Ph.D. research in Baton Rouge while working with an epidemiologist in Washington, D.C.] may seem like an unconventional arrangement, but it provided me with opportunities I couldn’t have expected,” she said.

Praise for Vanessa

Vanessa (left) with Ramchand and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (center). (Photo by Rajeev Ramchand)

Ramchand describes Vanessa as “an intelligent, well-poised, and articulate graduate student.” He explained that she is not only a thoughtful and hard-working researcher but also a supportive mentor and colleague, accompanying Ramchand to the launch of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ “Veterans for Responsible Solutions” initiative. Vanessa’s presentation at the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science conference exceeded Ramchand’s expectations for a graduate student and was on par with that of a seasoned researcher. “I am confident that she will continue to conduct thoughtful, important, practical, and informative research that will improve community resilience after disasters. I look forward to learning more from her,” he concluded.

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Vanessa Parks and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CRGC website to learn more about their work.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010- 2017 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

CONCORDE Hosts Third Fisherman-Scientist Bridge Building Workshop

4465 Approximately 15 local fishermen and their families attended the workshop to meet the scientists and voice their concern about topics such as sediment and marine snow. The fishermen also learned how to use the YSI ProDSSII conductivity/temperature-depth meter (CTD) to collect depth salinity and temperature profiles. They will continue collecting and returning data through the end of the project.

Read more about the workshop and CONCORDE’s collaboration with fishermen here.

RFP-V Saul: Impact of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Behaviors of Fishers in Gulf of Mexico

The Avoiding Surprises: understanding the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the decision making behaviors of fishers and how this affects the assessment and management of commercially important fish species in the Gulf of Mexico using an agent-base project is lead by Steven Saul, Arizona State University.

Researcher Steven Saul

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill disrupted the livelihoods of many individuals living along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, ranging from those in the tourism industry to those who fish the Gulf’s waters for a living. Many of those in the fishing industry, and the sectors that depend on it had to modify their operations (i.e. alter their fishing locations, target species, gear used, or trip duration) in the months after the spill due to spatial closures restricting access to potentially polluted waters. Some of the fishing effort during this time was redirected towards assisting with the cleanup efforts associated with the oil spill. This re-tasking had a direct effect on fishing catch and effort in 2010, and perhaps beyond, depending on whether behaviors that were modified due to the oil spill were maintained in the years ahead or if there was a return to the original behavioral patterns that existed before the incident.

To assess the status of commercially important fish stocks in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Marine Fisheries Service relies heavily on information on fish catch and fishing effort that is compulsorily provided by the fishing industry to the government. This information is used to estimate trends in fish abundance over time and serves as inputs to tune the fish population models that are used to establish fishing regulations, such as annual catch limits. At the present time, it is not well understood how the oil spill closures affected the catch of fish and the amount of time/effort fishers needed to use to catch those fish. As a result, it has been difficult for the National Marine Fisheries Service to use the 2010 year of data as a proxy for the trends in abundance that year due to the substantial behavior changes that occurred in the fishing fleet. A biased index of abundance could affect the abundance estimates and the estimated catch limit trajectories stock assessment models provide for future years, as recruitment in future years is dependent on the biomass available in previous years, which is in turn, affected by the fishing mortality that year. Such biases could result in socioeconomic losses to the fishing community by either triggering unnecessary reductions in catch, or conversely increases in catch under conditions where biomass is actually reduced.

To improve our understanding of these dynamics, the goal of this project is to develop a spatially explicit bioeonomic model of some the most important commercial fishery species and the fleets that harvest them in the Gulf of Mexico. The project continues the work initiated by the PI and his collaborators, whom have developed a spatially explicit model for the West Florida shelf that incorporates the behavior of four reef fish species (red grouper, gag grouper, red snapper and mutton snapper) and two commercial fishing fleets (handline and longline) (1). The new proposed model will extend the geographical scope of the current model to the entire US shelf of the Gulf of Mexico, will include additional species (brown shrimp, pink shrimp and menhaden) and two new fishing fleets (shrimp trawlers and menhaden purse seiners). Additionally the model will be modified to incorporate the direct effects of oil pollution on the survival of adult fish and shrimp and the reduction in recruitment caused by impacts of oil on spawner fitness and larval survival. In addition to understanding fleet dynamics, the model will also be used to evaluate long term responses of these populations to the disturbances caused by the oil pollution and by the imposition of fishing closures. Alternative responses to the spill will also be evaluated to understand the scope of the possible effects of different sizes of oil spills on the recovery of these populations.

Click for access to GoMRI’s YouTube videos of RFP-V Projects…

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This project was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) in the RFP-V funding program.

Grad Student Fiore Investigates Oil Spill Impacts on Gulf Economy and Fisheries Resiliency

Jacqueline Fiore is an economic analysis and policy Ph.D. student at Tulane University. (Provided by Jacqueline Fiore)

Natural and manmade disasters often involve long-term effects, but the majority of follow-up research tends to focus on the biophysical impacts rather than the social. Jacqueline Fiore, a Louisiana resident, understands how disasters such as hurricanes and oil spills can impact local industries, citizens, and ecosystems.

Jacqueline, a Ph.D. student in Tulane University’s Economic Analysis and Policy program and a GoMRI Scholar with the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities (CRGC), uses applied economics to study the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s socioeconomic impacts on Gulf fisheries, assess their ability to recover, and help inform future oil spill response.

Her Path

Jacqueline’s journey into oil spill research began on the other side of the globe after she completed a bachelor’s degree in communications and two master’s degrees in epidemiology and economics. She worked for Michigan State University conducting epidemiological studies on malaria in Malawi, Africa with the National Institutes of Health Malawi International Center for Excellence in Malaria Research program. While she enjoyed this research, Jacqueline felt that she was still searching for her “niche” and realized that she wanted to learn econometric methods for public health research.

Jacqueline entered Tulane University’s Ph.D. program in economic analysis and policy. Her advisor Dr. K. Brent Venable introduced her to the CRGC studies on Gulf communities’ resilience to large-scale environmental disasters such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Jacqueline joined the project’s economics sub-team with her other two advisors RAND Corporation economists Drs. Craig Bond and Shanthi Nataraj and uses economic analysis to study the oil spill’s impact on the fishing industry.

Her Work

Jacqueline explained that the concept of resilience refers to human communities’ ability to respond, reorganize, and recover during and following a damaging event. She continued, “The dynamics of certain indicators, such as fisheries landings and revenues, can provide information about the abilities of fisheries to withstand and recover from oil spill events.”

Jacqueline presents her preliminary findings at the CRGC All-Hands Meeting in Mobile, Alabama, in June 2016. (Photo by Elizabeth Thornton of RAND Corporation)

Jacqueline contacted approximately 70 fisheries and tourism representatives for insight into the best data sources for her research and identified National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) commercial fishing data and state-maintained trip ticket datasets as the most comprehensive sources for pre- and post-spill data. She then worked with the CRGC economics sub-team to identify the best model specifications for analysis. She plans to combine these specifications with public- and restricted-access data to assess the spill’s effects on fisheries landings for select Gulf fish species.

Jacqueline’s research will quantify impacts to fisheries landings in pounds and revenues over time, accounting for variables such as number of fishing trips, type of gear used, and total area fished. She will complement anecdotal accounts and time-series data with an econometric assessment to place the spill’s economic impacts in context with the impacts of the 2005 hurricane season. Ultimately, Jacqueline hopes that her findings will help the fisheries industry and associated communities prepare for the way various Gulf fish species and fishers may respond to future disasters.

Her Learning

Jacqueline discovered that the research process can be challenging, particularly when working with human-related data. She recalls learning about and adhering to data confidentiality rules when using government datasets, adjusting her economic models to match each data source’s availability and variables, and even reframing how she communicated her findings to various audiences. For example, she adapted presentations of her preliminary results at CRGC All-Hands Meetings to better suit an audience without an economics background. Rather than focusing on her work’s detailed methods and techniques, which the audience would not be familiar with, she focused on graphs that illustrated trends in her findings.

Dominik’s Seafood Inc. – a shrimp processing plant in Bayou La Batre, Alabama – is one of the many local Gulf-area businesses that could benefit from Jacqueline’s research with the economics sub-team. (Photo by Jacqueline Fiore)

Jacqueline also experienced how her research can impact and be impacted by a wide range of people. CRGC All Hands Meetings are attended by the consortium’s technical and stake holder advisory committees, principal investigators, research staff, and graduate students, allowing Jacqueline to gain valuable feedback about her findings from a diverse audience. Fellow researchers offered insights into why some fish species may have been more affected after the spill than others and theorized how fisheries closures might cause some fish species to appear more resilient than they may actually be. She also met with Deepwater Horizon-impacted community members and observed seafood processing plants on a field trip to Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The plant’s employees may use her results to identify which fish species may be the most affected and to estimate financial impacts should another disaster occur.

Her Future

Jacqueline plans to complete her Ph.D. in spring 2018 and hopes to pursue a research program or program management position where she can use her training and expertise in economics and epidemiology. She is particularly interested in industry- or government-initiated projects that are implemented in an academic or private sector, because she “enjoys multidisciplinary collaboration, quick turnaround, and the ability to measure her findings’ impact on the target audience.”

She has found that a person’s career path can evolve based on interactions with others, job opportunities, and academic training and advises that students take time for self-reflection on their life experiences. “Try to learn something from each opportunity and challenge you encounter,” she said. “Your initial goals may look much different from the final outcome.”

Praise for Jacqueline

Craig Bond and Shanthi Nataraj praised Jacqueline’s enthusiasm and contributions to their work. “She not only does what would be expected of a research assistant – conducting literature reviews and data analyses – she also goes above and beyond and contributes to the intellectual design of the effort. Perhaps as importantly, she always does so with a smile,” said Bond. They explained that Jacqueline is considered a full partner on the research, “She has become a valuable colleague over the past two years, and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Jacqueline Fiore and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the CRGC website to learn more about their work.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

Understanding How Deepwater Horizon Affected Fishing Community Decisions

Fishing vessels used to capture reef fish rest at port. (Photo by Steve Saul)

Authorities closed large portions of the Gulf of Mexico to commercial and recreational fishing following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to contain and mitigate oil contamination of fish and seafood products. The fishing closures may have caused many fishers to search for alternative income solutions, such as relocating or chartering their vessels for the cleanup process.

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative recently awarded Dr. Steven Saul a grant to investigate how these closures and the effects of oil pollution may have influenced the fishing community’s livelihood and how their responses may have affected resource assessment. “Scientists are conducting important research on the chemical and ecological effects of the oil spill. However, this event affected not only the environment but also people’s lives and livelihoods, which are predicated on having a healthy ecosystem,” said Saul.

Fishers offloading a catch of yellowedge grouper from a fishing vessel near Tampa. (Photo by Steve Saul)

Saul’s team will use questionnaires to survey spill-affected fishers about their decisions, the factors that most heavily influenced those decisions, and whether changes were short-term (lasting only during the closures) or long-term (permanently altering their fishing behavior). The researchers will combine their data with National Marine Fisheries Service data, which includes commercial fishers’ reported activities for stock assessment, and expand an existing West Florida Shelf simulation model to include species and fishing fleet activities from the Florida Keys to the United States-Mexico border.

The enhanced model will help researchers predict the spatial patterns of fishing effort, catch, and abundance for fleets and marine species under various scenarios, including oil spill events. The researchers will also use their model to determine if the closures and any resulting changes in fishing activities affected fishing industry data collection and, in turn, the assessment of fish resources.

Red grouper freshly offloaded from a bottom longline vessel fishing near Tampa. Red grouper is one of four reef fish species included in the project’s model. (Photo by Steve Saul)

Saul hopes the improved model will help characterize the spill’s impacts on fishing communities and provide valuable lessons learned about how agencies can best respond to such events. “Our research is essentially addressing how the natural and human systems are coupled and how the effect on one system pushes back to affect the other and vice versa. They are inextricably linked.”

The project’s researchers are Steven Saul and Sam Purkis of Nova Southeastern University and David Die of the University of Miami. Their project is Avoiding Surprises: Understanding the Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on the Decision Making Behaviors of Fishers and How This Affects the Assessment and Management of Commercially Important Fish Species in the Gulf of Mexico Using an Agent-Based Model.

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Tulane Scientists Hold Oil Spill Q&A Event with Vietnamese Fishing Community

Louisiana Shrimp being weighed before sold. (Photo: Kerry Maloney/Louisiana Seafood News www.Louisianaseafoodnews.com)

Many people outside of the Gulf Coast region are not aware of the large population of Vietnamese residents who live across this area, in concentrated communities from Texas to Alabama.

Arriving as refugees during and after the Vietnam War, they settled along the Gulf Coast to work in the booming commercial fishing industry. Today, the business of catching and processing seafood for sale around the country remains an important economic driver for their community. As a result, the Macondo oil spill profoundly affected the livelihoods of many Vietnamese residents of Louisiana.

In order to address the concerns of this unique community, a joint team of researchers from Tulane University’s School of Science and Engineering and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine provided information and fielded questions on a Sunday in July at a Vietnamese Catholic church in Houma, Louisiana. Titled, “Is it safe? The Oil Spill, Dispersants, and Frequently Asked Questions,” the event took place after mass with about 20 community members in attendance.

Tulane University held an outreach event on July 21, 2013 at Our Lady of Holy Rosary church in Houma, LA, to address issues related to the oil spill. The church is attended by the local Vietnamese community, many of whom work in the seafood industry. (Photo courtesy of C-MEDS)

Vijay John of Tulane University, Director of the Consortium for the Molecular Engineering of Dispersant Systems (C-MEDS), explained that in order to adequately answer all the questions, it was important that both Schools be represented at the meeting, saying, “The C-MEDS consortium is centered at Tulane University and is in close proximity to the communities that were most directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon incident. In addition, the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane has an extensive research and outreach program on the health impacts of the oil spill.”

Debi Benoit, a Research Board member of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), began the session by explaining the history and mission of GoMRI. Then Vijay John, along with undergraduate students who work with him on dispersant studies, gave brief talks about what dispersants do and why they were used in the oil spill response. Using demonstrations to show the crowd how they worked, the presenters brought up a volunteer child from the audience to shake vials to make emulsions form. Dr. Jeffery Wickliffe, a Tulane toxicologist, ended the talk by explaining the methods researchers used to test seafood for safety.

At the conclusion of the talk, the questions began. “I earn my livelihood shucking oysters. How would I know if the oysters I am working with are contaminated?” “If I develop a skin rash 6 months after working with seafood, where do I go? Who do I turn to?” “My seafood catch is poor. How do I know if it is due to the spill?” “If the state closed certain areas due to contamination, would the water flowing between the closed and open areas not bring oil or other toxic materials into our catches?” And, “Should we be concerned about health hazards even now if we inadvertently come into contact with a contaminant?”

The audience was very polite, but their questions clearly showed that they had concerns about short- and long-term effects of the spill, both on their health and on their ability to provide for their families. The speakers listened with concern, answering questions with the latest scientific research. Dr. Wickliffe fielded quite a few health questions and was extremely helpful in addressing the audience’s concerns. The team also directed the community to organizations and resources that might be a source of ongoing support with health or economic issues. Because of the success of this program, Tulane researchers plan to hold similar events with local community groups in the future as a way of engaging those most affected by the oil spill and sharing their science findings with them.

The Consortium for the Molecular Engineering of Dispersant Systems (C-MEDS) received a research grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). The GoMRI is a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by an agreement between BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact of this and similar incidents on the environment and public health.