Ocean Alliance’s Gulf of Mexico research expedition is focused on evaluating the impact of the oil spill on whales in the Gulf, the marine life on which they feed and the ecosystem that supports them. In partnership with scientists and students from the University of Southern Maine (USM), Ocean Alliance will measure contaminant levels in the population of some 1600 sperm whales living in the vicinity of the Deep Horizon wellhead. The research conducted on board will also involve sampling organisms from the food pyramids that support sperm whales. Samples from several species that live both outside and inside the Gulf will be taken. Efforts will also be made to measure contaminant concentrations in fish species consumed by humans.
Research will be conducted through the summer and into the fall of 2010 aboard Ocean Alliance’s RV Odyssey, the only sailboat in the world equipped with a state-of-the-art cell culture laboratory. Further analysis will be conducted in USM’s Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology. The cell cultures from the animals being biopsied will enable Ocean Alliance/USM to measure how the contaminants found in the Gulf of Mexico affect cells from the species in which they were found–making it possible to determine not only contaminant concentrations, but also their effects on cultured cells from the species they contaminate.
Multimedia including podcasts, blogs, photos and underwater video captured from onboard Odyssey will be broadcast through the Ocean Alliance web site, educational partner sites, and media outlets globally. Data collected during the expedition will provide scientists, policymakers, the general public, and stakeholders who rely on the Gulf with a better informed basis from which to proceed with efforts to mitigate the consequences of the oil spill.
Read the Full Gulf of Mexico Research Summary.
Read the Gulf of Mexico Public Education Summary.