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Oceana’s Cheryl Eldemar pulls an oil test strip from the line.
Oceana/Carlos Suarez
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As I told you last week, our crew in the Gulf of Mexico has been hard at work mapping the oil plume near the Deepwater Horizon. The experiment -- the first of its kind in the Gulf -- is now complete, and by all accounts it was a success, despite some very nasty weather.
During the last 10 days, the team aboard the Latitude, led by Oceana’s Pacific Science Director and oil pollution expert Dr. Jeff Short, installed hundreds of vertical measuring sensors at sixteen points in the Gulf. They ranged from the surface down to a depth of 2,000 meters, distributed every 100 meters. After a five-day interval to allow the sensors to take their readings, the crew retrieved the sensors and sent them to an independent and specialized laboratory.
The lab will analyze the test strips to determine the levels of pollution from toxic hydrocarbons in the area that the BP rig occupied, and also in other areas of the Gulf to the west and north of it. The results are expected to be ready within four weeks, so stay tuned.
There were a few clear days during this leg, and the Oceana crew even spotted a beaked whale one day. Check out the photo slideshow from the last few days:
Check out Oceana's blog for daily updates, check out more videos and photos from the boat and join the more than 155,000 people who have take action with us to stop offshore drilling.
Written by Emily Fisher, online editor at Oceana.
Watch video on Oceana's mission and more in Ocean Currents where we dive deep into water issues.
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