Sea Grant has released an Oil Spill Science Outreach publication discussing examples of how oil and dispersants might affect Gulf of Mexico fisheries to help natural resource managers maintain healthy Gulf of Mexico ecosystems and protect the livelihoods of the people that depend on them.
The bulletin is found here
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.
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/.
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/.
Click image to download brochure…
The Sea Grant oil spill science outreach team released an informational brochure about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impacts on fisheries.
This brochure synthesizes peer-reviewed oil spill science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those who live and work across the Gulf Coast.The brochure Impacts From the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Gulf of Mexico Fisheries discusses topics such as individual-level impacts to fish, population impacts, community-wide impacts, and factors influencing impacts on fisheries.
The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team offers public seminars across the Gulf Coast. Click here to view upcoming science seminars and read about recently-held events. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.
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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 http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.
Heather Dippold (left- CONCORDE Education & Outreach) meets with Peter Nguyen ( right close- Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center) and Captain Nguyen (far right) to discuss data collection and the community meeting. Photo credit: Jessica Kastler
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 readings during the Fall Campaign as a carefully planned part of the overall effort to understand the physical and biological processes that dominate the area.
“We’re working to understand how oil could move through the coastal environment,” explained Outreach Coordinator Jessie Kastler. “This is very important to people who make their living harvesting Gulf fish, shrimp, and oysters.”
Captain Nguyen gathered data the last week in October in conjunction with the R/V Point Sur, while Captain George went out in early November alongside the Pelican. Both took readings on the depths at various GPS locations in the study area. They also sampled for water quality, but experienced some of the difficulties field scientists face in terms of weather and equipment issues presenting challenges to obtaining usable data.
Captain George stands aboard his vessel Peruga. Photo credit: Jessica Kastler
With the Fall Campaign effort behind her, Kastler is now concentrating on phase two of the outreach program. Both Captain Nguyen and Captain George come from cultures unique to the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts and common in the professional fishing community. Captain Nguyen is Vietnamese, one of many on the Gulf coast whose families came to the area as refugees from the Vietnam conflict in the latter part of the twentieth century. Captain George, on the other hand, is a Cajun who descends from generations that have relied on the Gulf for their livelihood. While many who identify as Cajuns have traditionally French surnames, large populations of people whose families originally hailed from the former Yugoslavia and the Canary Islands have been folded into the Cajun culture through the centuries. Each smaller subset of community has these traditions and cultural practices that color its approach to fishing. Understanding these nuances will help CONCORDE’s outreach staff better tailor outreach opportunities.
In light of this, Kastler plans to have Captain Nguyen and Captain George act as liaisons into their professional fishing and ethnic communities. With their assistance, CONCORDE will host community meetings to engage senior and early career scientists with area fishers. The evening programs will include an introduction to CONCORDE’s mission, an overview of what is currently known, and what scientists hope to learn. After the presentation at large, attendees will have an opportunity to join small groups of four to eight people—a mix of fishers, scientists, educators, and interpreters where necessary—to discuss the issues at hand.
Kastler says that while the overall goal is to educate the public regarding findings and to bolster the public trust in science through transparency, it’s important to stress that CONCORDE researchers can benefit from the contact as well. “We want to show members of the these communities that we want to learn from them,” Kastler said. “They’ve been out on the water for decades and know through experience what is typical for the area.”
Once the doors of communication are open, social media will be used to keep information flowing. Through Kastler’s leadership, CONCORDE already has an active presence on Facebook, where updates are posted regularly. During the Fall Campaign, educators and research staff blogged on the CONCORDE website from on board the research vessels. A goal of CONCORDE outreach is for fishers- or any local resident with questions about current issues- to turn to these outlets first for answers. “By the time we launch the Spring Research Campaign, I want people in the community who rely on the Gulf for their livelihood to know who we are and where we post information they can use,” said Kastler.
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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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/.
Dr. Debra Murie from the University of Florida answered a few questions about her RFP-II project, Spatial and Temporal Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Growth and Productivity of Recreational and Commercial Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The PIs on the project, in addition to Dr. Murie, are Dr. Daryl Parkyn and Dr. Robert Ahrens.
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This research was made possible by grants from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to Louisiana State University for two projects, Response of the Plant-Microbial-Benthic Ecosystem to Mitigation Strategies and Long-Term Effects on Plant-Soil-Benthic Systems, and to the Northern Gulf Institute.
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/.
The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach team released two fisheries-related informational brochures that synthesize peer-reviewed oil spill science for a broad range of general audiences, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on a healthy Gulf.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill’s Impact on Gulf Seafood brochure presents results from federal, state, and independent seafood testing after the oil spill. Learn about the results of federal, state and independent seafood testing after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – a collaborative effort between GoMRI and the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Fisheries Landings and Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico brochure presents historical fisheries landings data within the context of manmade and natural disasters. Learn about historical fisheries landings data within the context of man-made and natural disasters. Explore why this data is important for fisheries management.
The Sea Grant Oil Spill Outreach Team offers public seminars across the Gulf Coast. Click here to view upcoming science seminars and read about recently-held events. To receive email updates about seminars, publications, and the outreach team, click here.
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.