Oil spews from the underwater well off the Gulf of Mexico, are affecting entire ecosystems and killing wildlife that struggles to live in a now oxygen-deprived environment. Three Oregon State researchers will travel to the Gulf to study the damage done to the fish and their habitat.
“We’re only looking at the immediate change,” said Stephen Brandt, Director of the Oregon Sea Grant program at Oregon State. “Long term will take a lot more work.”
Brandt studied various fish from all over the world; from the tropics of the South Pacific, including Australia, to the narrow Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy. Brandt is also a member of a science advisory board for the Gulf of Mexico which offers a scientific perspective on coastal restoration and hurricane protection.
Nationwide, the National Science Foundation only funded 16 rapid response teams to research the Gulf oil spill. Brandt and his crew were one of the few to be approved, and will conduct research in the Gulf from Aug. 31 to Sept. 8.
“Our strength is that we have a good team of scientists and strong baseline data,” Brandt said.
Since 2003, Brandt and a team of researchers have studied how the dead zone region of the Gulf of Mexico affects the life within it. Using the data they collected, they formed food web models and charted the growth of fish populations.
“With the work we had been doing, it is a natural continuation to look at what the impact of the oil might be,” Brandt said.
Using acoustic instruments, Cynthia Sellinger, a faculty researcher at Oregon State, will map the abundance of fish and where they are located. She is currently wrapping up a project on ocean health and human initiative before she dives into researching the oil spill in the Gulf.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Sellinger attended university there, studying geology as an undergraduate. She focused on how oil moved and where to find it.
Given her educational background and the proximity of her hometown to the spill, it was no wonder Sellinger agreed to work on the project.
“My credentials are mainly in hydrology and acoustics,” Sellinger said. “It’s the physical side of the equation rather than the biological or chemical side.”
The instruments are used to identify the acoustic signature of each fish, making it possible to map the abundance and distribution of the different fish species. Sellinger has also done underwater acoustic work on the Continental Shelf, as well as the Florida Shelf.
“You can think of it kind of like sonar,” said Sarah Kolesar, another faculty researcher at Oregon State. “You can get a special figure of what fish and habitats are like.”
Kolesar was hired nine months ago to work on similar projects in Mexico. She is passionate about working alongside Brandt and Sellinger this fall. Her other projects include research on Chesapeake Bay where she studied fish in similar habitats with low oxygen.
“One of the questions that is most interesting to me is the food web,” Kolesar said.
Aside from environmental damage, the Gulf has a significant impact on the lives of those living on its shores. A reduction in commercial and recreational fishing will affect jobs and food sources. Not only is the habitat of the fish being damaged by the oil spill, but also the complex web they are connected to.
“From a human perspective, one of the biggest predations on fish is us,” Kolesar said.