Earth Blog

The University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences keeps reporting running into opposition from unexpected parties in its attempts to investigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It had previously mentioned encountering difficulties in obtaining samples. (See USF scientists: BP not helpful in researching oil layers in the Tampa Tribune on June 8, and USF professor: BP’s resistance is ‘unsettling’, WRBL on June 9.)

An article published in the St. Petersburg Times on Tuesday, August 10 states that NOAA and the Coast Guard told the department to shut up about its research findings. Apparently, it’s not the only local university with that kind of experience either, as an oceanographer at the University of Southern Mississippi received the same treatment.

The article is available online at: http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/usf-says-government-tried-to-squelch-their-oil-plume-findings/1114225.

Yet today, the same paper reports that the dean of USF’s College of Marine Sciences now classifies it as “old news” in a letter to the editor.

USF’s College of Marine Sciences is based in St. Petersburg whereas the main campus is in Tampa. Today, August 12, is also when the decisions about new oil spills research projects are made, at the same location. Ten million dollars provided by BP will finance the selected projects.

On May 17, I blogged on the oxygen depletion (30%) apparently seen near some of the gushers at the time and on what Samantha Joye, marine science professor at the University of Georgia, had to say about that.

On August 1, Samantha Joye wrote on her blog:

“However, it’s likely that a great deal of oil is still out there in the Gulf of Mexico’s waters, it’s just no longer visible to us.”

She added:

“The fact that this oil is “invisible” makes it no less of a danger to the Gulf’s fragile ecosystems. Quite the contrary, the danger is real and the danger is much more difficult to quantify, track and assess.

In other media, scientists voice similar views. Pamela Hallock Muller, also of USF’s College of Marine Science, comments:

“There are too many unknowns at this moment to say that it’s not a problem anymore because 75 percent of it can’t be found.”

Anna Armitage, a professor at Texas A&M University, says:

“But, when you look more carefully, when you look at the soil characteristics or the below ground characteristics or the animals that live in those marshes, those components can take literally decades to recover. So just because the plants are back doesn’t mean the marsh is healthy again.”