2010 NSF RAPID cruise: light crude oil found offshore Louisiana at 55 m depth

The laboratories of Suzanne Fredericq and Darryl Felder in the Biology Department at UL Lafayette(http://biology.ucs.louisiana.edu/) have completed the first 5-day leg of the NSF RAPID-funded dredging cruise offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama (Dec 2-6, 2010). The algal diversity in all places dredged was either extremely low or non-existent.

The video shows a dredged collection from ~55 m depth being hauled on board the R/V Pelican on Dec. 4, 2010 at Ewing Bank 2. Watch the nodules - normally covered by fleshy seaweeds at this very location - for the most part devoid of any algae. Watch Darryl Felder yelling when the dredge comes up that he smells oil. We all smelled it very strongly. Watch some light crude oil on our fingers when touching some of the nodules. The disturbing fact is that Ewing Bank is West of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion site.

We bagged a bucket full of general rubble, as well as a smaller bag with the obviously contaminated nodules, and stored them in a cold room. The material is awaiting final HC fingerprinting analysis by toxicologist M. Scott Miles, School of the Coast and Environment at LSU.

The only place we smelled and saw oil was at Ewing Bank 2 (Fish Haven) on 12/4/10 (our number 12-4-10-4; NSFIV-13) at dredge IN: 28 05.526'N; 91.01.005'W 56 m and dredge OUT: 28 05.730N; 91 01.570W at 55.1 m depth.

We are now looking forward to returning to the same areas during the second leg of the RAPID expedition, April 6-11, 2011, to assess whether the marine flora has recovered or not, and if so, how.

Funded by NSF Rapid grant: RAPID: Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon crude oil spill on the diversity of macroalgae and macrocrustaceans inhabiting deepwater hard banks in the NW, NE and SE Gulf of Mexico. NSF DEB-1045690. Suzanne Fredericq and Darryl Felder, Co-PIs.

Filmed by S. Fredericq & William Schmidt, edited by SF.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• rhodoliths
• National Science Foundation
• RAPID
• grant

[MyDadsRubberBroke]

Ah, the sniff test.