The cruise will allow the scientists to collect water column and sediment samples at Macondo impacted sites, other anthropogenically impacted sites, natural hydrocarbon seeps and control sites to track Macondo impacts and compare the processes observed in Macondo-influenced areas to natural seeps and control sites.
Researchers have known that pollutant exposure alters the ability of ecological systems to degrade those pollutants upon encountering them again.
The vessel was loaded with ocean drifters to track movement of surface waters around the rig and with equipment to collect time-sensitive samples of water, air and sediment.
“This is an opportunity to put science into immediate practice.” – Tamay Ozgokmen, University of Miami and director of CARTHE
The 2010 explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling site and the subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico proved to be deadly and costly.