Skidaway Institute’s Jay Brandes is attending a conference of scientists discussing the Gulf spill in Baton Rouge, La. Here is his first report on the meetings.
Dr. Jay Brandes
This morning we had a summary by members of USGS, NOAA and NSF about what is going on in the gulf. In a word, there is a lot going on. NOAA has had surveys, modeling, measurements going on from day one (literally, the first models for spill tracking were started within 12 hours of the rig sinking). Lots of emphasis on understanding the system pre-spill, then moving towards understanding spill effects with that background. 3000 samples collected so far, all types. They all emphasize that it will be decades before the last spill effects are known/remediated.
They understand that there is a lack on information on these activities, and are working on some sort of unified web page to act as an information clearinghouse.
Skidaway Institute's Web log 