Every year, the migration of gray whales passing by the Oregon coast to and from warmer waters draws whale watchers to coastal towns like Newport, just to observe the animals on their journey.

However, the potential installation of new wave energy devices in the ocean could pose problems for these creatures, and researchers at Oregon State U.’s Marine Mammal Institute are planning to test an acoustic device in December that may help prevent foreseeable injury from occurring by directing whales away from danger.

“We don’t have any tools right now to keep the animals out of harm’s way if there’s an issue,” said Bruce Mate, director of the MMI. “In the event of an oil spill or other calamity, we’re hoping this device can be used widely. And if it’s successful, it’s likely to be effective with other whale species as well.”

The functionality of the system is fairly straightforward. According to Mate, the device will emit a one-second noise three times a minute, which amounts to 18 cumulative minutes of noise daily, given that the device will only be utilized for six hours a day. The noise will not be emitted at night, and there will also be a control period during the day to determine how the whales behave when the signal is off.

“We have come to this plan by virtue of consulting with five of the best acoustic experts in the world, including people from Cornell, Scripps, private consultants and people here in Oregon,” Mate said. “Ideally, the noise will influence the movements of the whales by having them avoid this device by 750 meters, which is less than half a mile.”

The idea for the whale-deterring device first cropped up in 2007 during a workshop held at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, in which marine scientists held discussions regarding the ecological effects of wave energy development and how marine mammals might be impacted. Considering the large percentage of gray whales that pass by the Oregon coast, scientists felt that the issue needed to be addressed.

“A 2007-2008 study monitoring gray whales provided some accurate location information, and from that work, they found out that 61 percent of gray whales are passing within three nautical miles of the Oregon shore,” said Barb Lagerquist, a senior faculty research assistant for the MMI. “With animals traveling through an area where wave energy is being proposed, there’s the potential for future encounters in those areas, and they may become injured by colliding with mooring cables that will be holding these devices in place in the water.”

Lagerquist explained that the wave energy devices will be held down with four- to six-inch-thick cables, and it is difficult to know if the whales would be able to detect them in time. A large animal like a whale moving three to four miles per hour through the water could experience significant harm by running into these cables.

The pinging of the whale-deterring device seems to be a viable solution to the problem, one that was widely discussed and openly considered at a town hall meeting in Newport last Wednesday. The meeting started with a talk by David Mellinger, associate professor at OSU’s Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies and authority on marine mammal acoustics.

“There are a lot of different zones of influence, as to whether or not a sound is going to affect a marine mammal,” Mellinger said. “There’s a definite difference between sound in water and sound in air, and it’s hard to compare the two. Of course, what everyone wants to do is know if it’s as loud as a rock band or something like that, but it’s not a simple comparison.”

According to Mellinger’s presentation, gray whales have been shown to respond to low frequency sonar. However, the acoustic deterring device is at a signal intensity that is much too low to cause any hearing damage to the whales, and it will only affect their behavior for about a half of a mile within the target area of avoidance.

In simpler terms, the device will affect the whales only minimally, while keeping them away from dangerous areas.

“An animal potentially lined up to go straight through any cables that is then deterred by the device will only increase its migration .001 percent, so it’s a trivial energetic change that we would make in the animal’s path,” Mate said.

According to Lagerquist, the study will start in December and last until mid-April, which is during the southbound migration of the gray whale population, and also the beginning of the northbound migration. The observation will be entirely visual with no boats or tags that might affect behavior.

“What it amounts to is that we’ve done our homework,” Mate said. “We want people to understand that we aren’t doing the same thing as naval sonar, and what we’re really attempting to do is use sound in a way that will ultimately be very good for whales and everyone involved.”

There is a devoted following of people in the health-conscious state of Oregon who believe in only eating and purchasing organic food. And their lifestyle just received a little backup.

In a new study in the journal Pediatrics, cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are beginning to be associated with exposure to pesticides. For those living in a rural environment, this could have an especially big impact.

The study specifically focused on the exposure to pesticides called organophosphates, and, through testing the urine of 1,100 children, discovered that those with the highest levels of the chemical have a higher rate of ADHD.

Although they are not claiming to have found a direct link between ADHD and pesticides, it does open up the door for more testing.

If for some reason you didn’t know, organophosphate pesticides cause nerve damage to the brain by disrupting acetylcholinesterase, a neurotransmitter. This defect has also been connected with children suffering from ADHD.

So, what this study shows is that we aren’t only killing the pests, we are harming ourselves in the process. This really should not come as a shock to most of us.

Common sense should tell you that eating food sprayed with chemicals will inevitably cause some kind of harm. But, with the goal of the corporate food sector being to produce as much food as possible and our propensity to eat it because it is cheap and tasty, we tend to ignore the ramifications of chemical pesticides.

With this study comes an impetus for the government to intervene and possibly set national standards for a decrease in the use of these pesticides.

This debate has been going on for some time, and it’s not the first study to prove the harmful nature of chemicals. However, the study seems relatively speculative as to how much of a threat these pesticides can pose.

Perhaps, in the not-so-distant future, we will be able to find grocery stores without segregated organic and non-organic fruits and veggies sections; we will be rid of the price differences. And, most importantly, we will be given the ability to eat healthfully without the fear of our children developing ADHD.

For now, those who want to protect their children will have to stick to the more expensive organically grown fruits and vegetables and avoid the use of bug sprays.

For those who are accustomed to eating non-organic food, wash and scrub your produce to reduce pesticide residue. And, with any luck, we won’t have to deal with unruly, hyperactive children in a pesticide-free future.

Some might say that athletic talent is a quality people are born with. They might even say it runs in the family.

In the world of sports today, brothers like Eli and Peyton Manning both excel as NFL quarterbacks. Multiple siblings also represent Ohio State athletics, such as the Homan brothers in football and the Hill siblings in basketball.

For the Chekwa family, athletic excellence is practically an expectation.

Ohio State U. senior football player Chimdi Chekwa is the youngest of six children, all of whom have excelled at sports on the high school or collegiate level.

Before the talented children came talented parents. Chimdi’s father, Charles, played professional soccer on Nigeria’s national team. His mother, Eunice, was also an athlete, running track during her younger years.

According to Charles, sports were just as popular for his family growing up in Nigeria.

“All of my brothers and sisters were involved in athletics too,” Charles said. “My older brothers played softball and ran track, and my younger sisters did too. When we grew up, it was just natural for you to get involved.”

Chimdi is preceded by three older brothers: Uche, the oldest; Chima, the second-oldest; and Ike, the third-oldest.

“For me, it was my older brothers and sisters who inspired me to do sports,” Chimdi said. “I just watched them and they loved sports, so I loved sports. When you have the brothers, you basically do what they do.”

Being the oldest brother, Uche paved the way for the rest of the family.

“My oldest brother ran track and played a little football,” Chimdi said. “His sport was track. He ran it in high school — he won state in the 400 meters. Then he ended up getting a scholarship for Virginia Military Institute.”

From there, the stage was set.

Because he was plagued by injury, Chima Chekwa did not play sports at the collegiate level, but the second-oldest brother still starred as a three-sport athlete in track, football and basketball during his high school years. More recently, Chima has made his debut not in athletics, but on the big screen in various films.

Ike, the third Chekwa son, started playing football partway through high school, but it was not an easy road.

“With my parents coming from another country, they didn’t know about football too much. My mom didn’t really want my older brother to play football at first,” Chimdi said. “It took a lot of begging and begging until they were allowed to play football, so they each got started really late.”

Ike went on to junior college before transferring to Texas State to play football. After his college career, he also spent several years playing in the Arena Football League in Corpus Christi.

Chimdi also has two older sisters, who each played a different sport at the collegiate level. Blessing, the oldest sister, played college basketball at Mississippi State, and the youngest sister, Nonye, currently plays volleyball for Warner State in Florida.

Each member of the family was brought up with lofty athletic expectations.

“The one thing was, if you didn’t do well in your sport, you didn’t really want to keep doing it,” Chimdi said. “If I played basketball and I didn’t think I was good at it, I wouldn’t play it. After your game you’d come home and everybody would tell you that you need to do this, you need to do that. Everybody expects you to be good, because they were good.”

In the Chekwa household, the competition isn’t necessary ugly nor friendly, just something everyone has in common.

“It’s not fierce (competition), we just understand each other,” Chimdi said. “We understand that if we don’t do good, it is going to be criticized. If you ran a 10.6-second 100-meter, then they ran a 10.3-second 100-meter.”

The Chekwa family is currently scattered in various states across the country, from Florida to Louisiana on up to Ohio. Because of their busy work or school schedules, the siblings can’t support each other as much as they might like.

“It’s difficult. We basically just talk to each other on the phone,” Chimdi said. “At this point, they’re just coming out of school and working and they don’t get the opportunity to get to many of my games.”

For the parents, attendance at sporting events had to be divided while the kids grew up, so everyone had someone there supporting them.

“It was challenging,” Charles said. “We divided up the assignments, but if we had to miss a particular child’s game we would have to miss someone else’s so no one would feel bad in the end.”

Chimdi might have the busiest schedule of them all, as he has run track for three of his four years at OSU in addition to playing football. He has experienced success in both, winning the 4×100-meter race in the Big Ten Championships for track and recording Big Ten titles in football as well.

“At the stage I am now, I’m not really a role model, but something they can all be proud of,” Chimdi said. “A lot of my brothers were really good at sports, but they didn’t get the opportunity that I had.”

Rooted in strong Christian values, Charles Chekwa always told his family to “put God first, and everything else would fall in line.”

While watching the Heisman trophy presentation in high school, Chimdi’s mother also had some words of wisdom for him, as she told her son that one day he too would win that trophy.

“I told her I don’t even play a position that will win the Heisman,” Chimdi said. “But they want me to be that motivated person, and I take what she has to say seriously.”

The Chekwas hold high standards for their youngest son as he heads into his final year as both a student and athlete.

“We expect him to have an outstanding year this year. We believe he should perform to the best he possibly can, just leave it all out on the field,” Charles said. “He’s a very good boy.

It can be a very big challenge to balance academics and athletics, but he does it well, and we are so proud of him.”

The stench of a spoiled economy, rotten gas prices and oil-contaminated fish is emanating from the Gulf of Mexico.

But there’s good news.

One of those scents will help the seafood and fishing industries recover, according to U. Florida food science researcher Steve Otwell.

As oil continues to spill after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion April 20, fishing in the Gulf is mostly halted until proper seafood inspection takes place, Otwell said.

However, Otwell is preparing a program that trains government officials to inspect seafood quicker and cheaper by identifying the smell of oil contamination, he said.

“One of the interesting things is these scents are very potent, and that’s a good thing,” Otwell said. “That way you can detect contamination with the nose instead of having to guess. The sensory can be a very good safety measure, but some people can smell better than others. We’re training experts to screen the product. We want the best noses involved.”

Hundreds of people at UF and other universities will begin training in mid-June, Otwell said.

According to a press release, training will last four days.

Screeners stationed along the coast will be the first line of defense against contaminated seafood, he said. If seafood passes their judgment, then it will go on to the state and federal inspection levels.

“I think it’s going to help the industry,” Otwell said. “It will eventually get the fisheries open. It will build public confidence that we do have some measures to protect them, and we’ll have people right on site doing everything they can.”

The oil spill is scary for local seafood businesses, according to Justin Griffin, an operating partner at Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille in Gainesville, Fla.

“Even if we’re not sourcing from the Gulf of Mexico on certain items, those who are will re-source from other areas of the world, and it affects the pricing for everyone,” Griffin said. “It’s a scary thing, but we’re going to buy as smartly as possible and get our prices locked in as quickly as we can.”

The restaurant is no longer offering oysters, which it gets from the Gulf, because the supplier had to suspend operation due to contamination, Griffin said.

Fisheries near the Gulf are being shut down, but Otwell’s inspection methods should open up several fisheries, he said.

Although the spill affects the price of seafood, the industry should return to normal after a few months, Griffin said

“If people remain level-headed, treat the event as it is and see that people in our industry are wise and taking precautions against serving contaminated seafood, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue,” Griffin said. “There are plenty of other places to go find fish.”

For many college students, the choice of their major is not just a matter of shaping a course of study but shaping a future after graduation. The perception, at least, is that students majoring in business are more likely to graduate with jobs, and better paying jobs at that.

Alexis Colopy, an art major, buys that perception.

“Employers line up to see what kind of students are in the business school,” she said. “It’s not as easy for people like myself, regardless of the work we might do.”

But is there any truth to this perception that majoring in business, rather than in, say, English, will more likely translate into a high-salaried job with benefits after graduation?

Not really, said Matthew Brink, director of Career Development at Saint Joseph’s U. Although frustrations may occasionally run high in departments within the arts and humanities, Brink said he doesn’t believe one’s choice of a major is always a determinant of future income.

“It’s understandable why the perception exists, but it [getting a job] has more to do with the career cycle than the major of that student,” said Brink. “A student’s pursued career field is not always reflective of his or her major. We often have students from a business-related major want to pursue a career in the non-profit industry. They will have no advantages over a sociology major going into the same industry.”

According to Katharine Brooks, Ed.D., director of the Liberal Arts Career Studies at the University of Texas and author of “You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career,” some majors are naturally pre-professional, thus more likely to land a student a job relevant to his or her major.

“Those majors, such as engineering and accounting are, of course, more likely to find employment which is directly related to their education,” said Brooks. “The farther away from a specific career path the major is, philosophy for example, the more likely the graduate will find a job that doesn’t specifically require that major.”

This spring, the Career Development Center released statistics on the class of 2009 of Saint Joseph’s that presented the number of survey respondents from each major and the average salaries of the students from the different majors. Accounting, finance, and marketing were among the majors with the highest number of respondents as well as the highest average salary. Brink believes that one factor influencing this data is the timing of different organizations’ hiring cycles.

“Certain fields have early hiring cycles while others have an on-demand system,” said Brink. “Some finance and accounting firms are so large and profit-making that they have employees who go to schools to look at college candidates. Other smaller staffed organizations hire immediately when a position is vacant because the loss of productivity is more heavily felt.”

The survey was conducted between March and November 2009. Brink said he believes that the timing of the survey may not have given prospects of certain career fields a sufficient amount of time to obtain a job.

Accounting, finance, and marketing are also among the most popular majors at Saint Joseph’s U., helping inflate the numbers, he said. St. Joe’s is not alone in its difficulty in obtaining and deciphering such statistics, according to Brooks.

“Career services personnel across the nation struggle with the best way to collect this data,” said Brooks. “Salaries are generally self-reported: I get to tell the surveyor how much I earn. Quite frankly, I can make it up and no one will know.”

Payscale.com, a company that maintains an online database of employee salary data, took on the daunting challenge of collecting relevant information about college majors. The 2009 Payscale College Salary Report confirms that engineering majors will fare better than social workers when it comes to jobs and salaries.

The top five majors from a list titled “Best Undergrad Degrees by Salary” include aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering and economics. The bottom five include majors in Spanish, music, theology, elementary education and social work. In the middle of the pack are majors in philosophy, biology, history, health sciences and English.

These statistics were collected by colleges themselves, and according to Brooks, there is no way to prove their legitimacy.

“The data can be influenced by people who either want to brag about their great salary or title, or by those who are angry that they are unemployed,” said Brooks, Ed.D. “I once tried collect similar data. The two Philosophy majors of the class earned $2,000 and $80,000 respectively, accounting for a mean of $41,000: a completely meaningless figure.”

Until a formula is devised to prove or disprove this notion, the perception will exist that certain majors more easily allow students to obtain jobs once they graduate. Employment is only one aspect to one’s selection of a major, however, and according to Brooks, it is important for a student to take everything else into account.

“If you’re pursuing a major that doesn’t have a direct career path, then it’s important to focus on what you enjoy, what your strengths are, and how your major has taught you to think,” she said.

In the wake of a rough economy and the seemingly dried-up well of jobs, more Saint Joseph’s U. students are moving back home after graduation than ever.

“I don’t really have a choice,” said Kaitlin Southron, an English major. “It’s kind of expected at this point.”

Southron and her fellow graduating seniors are not alone. According to statistics from CollegeGrade.com, 80 percent of U.S. college graduates moved back home in 2009. Many students cite the failing economy as the main reason. Without a job, the cost of living on their own is often unaffordable.

“I don’t have enough money to get my own place, yet,” said psychology major Mary Eads. “Since I don’t have a job, yet, it’s just more economical at the moment for me to live at home and save money.”

John Feeley, a political science major from Cranford, N.J., is moving home for more reasons than just financial tightness. He’s looking forward to obtaining a job closer to his hometown.

“I’m hoping to get a job close to home,” Feeley said. “I like the New York City/North Jersey area and would love to get a job while being close to or living in Cranford for a long time.”

According to the same CollegeGrade.com poll, 11.5 percent of the students polled said they planned on moving home just for the summer. The number of students moving back home until they find a job jumps to nearly 70 percent.

None of these Saint Joseph’s students currently have a job waiting for them come fall, adding to the stress of the “what next” question after graduation.

Southron is just looking forward to catching her breath.

“My senior year has been so crazy with so many different things,” she said. “I honestly have not had any time to sit down, fix up my resume, and look for a full-time job. So that’s what I plan to do this summer.”

Lauren Miller, an English major with a minor in fine and performing arts, is moving back home to spend some time with family before pursuing her ideal job.

“I love my family and it’s a good way to save for when I eventually move,” Miller said. “Being at home for one last summer, or for a few more months, maybe a year, would be nice. That way I can have some time with my sisters before we move ahead in our careers.”

But not all seniors are thrilled with the idea of moving back home after living among their friends for the last four years. For many, the feeling is bittersweet.

“I love my parents and am glad to be moving back in with them,” said Feeley. “But I would also like to get my feet wet in the real world and provide for myself.”

Southron is worried that moving back home will feel like a step backwards, a resort back to high school days when her parents kept her on a shorter leash.

“It’s always hard to go home on breaks and try to show them how much I’ve learned and how much I’ve grown up,” Southron said. “But I worry that my parents will still treat me like a child.”

Southron is also afraid that the comforts of home may tempt her to stay there longer than she really wants.

“I also fear that I will become too comfortable at home, and not do much with myself after I graduate college,” she said. “My goal is to find a job and move out at least within the next year. I’d really like to move into Center City [Philadelphia].”

Miller echoed the sentiment of wanting something bigger for herself after graduation.

“I would really love to work in the music/entertainment business,” she said. “It’s a one-in-a-million chance, and people interested in this field are a dime a dozen. But I want my job to be something important to me and that gives back to other people, whether it be joy, comfort, etc. I just want to be something more.”

All college graduates have big dreams for their futures, and sometimes moving back home becomes a means to a better end.

“I can unpack my bags for good!” Southron joked. “It’ll be nice having one place to call home for a little while.”

Of course, moving back home also means separating from the second family many have created here at St. Joe’s. For some, it’s the singular thing they’ll miss about college. Eads is grateful that her hometown of King of Prussia, Pa., isn’t too far away from Philadelphia.

“I am still going to be close, so I don’t think I’ll miss it as much as if I had moved farther away,” Eads said.

On the other hand, Feeley is not too anxious about leaving the “City of Brotherly Love,” where he has been outnumbered as a sports fan these last few years.

“I’m a North Jersey and New York City person through and through,” Feeley said. “And while there will be some things I miss about the city, I really won’t be losing much sleep over not being in Philadelphia anymore.”

“Especially since I’m a Mets fan,” he added.

Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel, “Tell-All”, is about a washed-up actress named Katherine “Miss Kathie” Kenton and her confidant, Hazie Coogan, who is not only her maid but also the force behind Katherine’s glamorous facade.

Palahniuk always seems to find new ways to tell his stories. Possibly his most famous work “Fight Club,” which was published in 1996 and made into a movie in 1999, was told by an unnamed narrator with two personalities.

“Tell-All” reads like a screenplay, which is quite clever of the author. Each chapter — or act — opens with a different camera angle. With the exception of voice-overs, the story is told by Hazie.

It is Hazie’s responsibility to hold Katherine’s life together because the actress is often too sedated and emotional to do much for herself.

When the often-married and divorced actress meets potential suitor Webster Carlton Westward III, Hazie steps in to prevent catastrophe. Katherine has encountered such men before who simply use her and leave her heartbroken. Hazie does her best to thwart Webster’s efforts by rescheduling dates and not giving Katherine her messages from Webster.

It’s vintage Palahniuk: dark, creative, vulgar and hilarious, and littered with little buzz words and coined phrases like “was-bands,” in reference to her ex-husbands; “projectile praise,” the overabundant compliments Katherine receives; and “funeral flirtation,” which is pretty self-explanatory.

Palahniuk name drops incessantly. Classic actors like Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and Bette Davis are printed in boldface for the reader’s viewing pleasure. This book could very likely inspire a night of renting old classic movies — especially if you don’t know who any of these people are.

He’s making some underlying commentary about Hollywood starlets as well. At one point in the novel, Katherine Kenton holds auditions for a baby she can adopt. However, the infants either don’t match her home decor or just simply cry too much and so her efforts to become a diva-mother are in vain. It’s hard to ignore the parallel with current celebrities who adopt children like it’s the greatest fad since skinny jeans.

My only qualm with the book is how difficult it is to relate to the characters. Their dialogue exchanges are hilarious and their quirky personalities entertaining, but I didn’t really connect with any of them; they’re just too extreme to be real people.

I think any member of the Chuck Palahniuk cult will love “Tell-All” just as much as his previous 12 novels.

The Stanford U. Cardinal went to San Diego State’s Aztec Aquaplex this weekend to compete in the NCAA Tournament with high hopes and the No. 1 seed. However, the weekend didn’t end as planned for Stanford, as it fell 10-9 to No. 2 U. Southern California in the championship game Sunday night.

Stanford began the weekend Friday afternoon with a blowout win over Pomona-Pitzer. It started the first period with an impressive 7-0 lead, sending a clear message that the Card meant business, especially after its loss to UCLA two weeks ago.

By the end of the second period, the Cardinal was ahead 21-2, with the end result determined before the game had even ended.

The final score was 23-3; it was a brutal defeat for Pomona, and several Cardinal players shined in the win.

Freshman goalkeeper Kate Baldoni had a total of five saves. Sophomore two-meter offense Alex Koran and sophomore two-meter offense Melissa Seidemann each smashed four goals into the goal. Freshman two-meter offense Annika Dries, sophomore driver Alyssa Lo, junior driver Kim Krueger, sophomore driver Pallavi Menon and senior driver Kelsey Holshouser each skipped in two goals. Sophomore driver Cassie Churnside, freshman driver Vee Dunlevie and freshman driver Jillian Garton each scored a single goal.

After dominating its match on Friday, the Cardinal continued the tournament by facing off against rival California on Saturday.

The Cardinal led the Golden Bears by one after the first period, but by halftime, both teams were tied at three.

Stanford put its foot down during the third and fourth periods, not letting Cal score a single point, for a final score of 6-3.

Junior goalkeeper Amber Oland saved an incredible 12 shots throughout the match. Seidemann smashed in two goals of her own, while Churnside, Koran, Krueger and Menon each tacked on an additional goal.

Saturday’s win advanced Stanford to the NCAA championship game yesterday, where it met USC, a team that it had already triumphed over twice this season.

Early in the season at the Stanford Invitational, the Cardinal was victorious against USC with a 10-7 win. Later that month, the Cardinal faced off with the Trojans once more at the Irvine Invitational and lost 10-6. In late April, the Cardinal earned its top spot back by stealing a win against USC with a final score of 7-6.

Now, the Cardinal and Trojans faced off again, this time for the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship.
The Cardinal got off to a slow start in the match, ending the second period with only three points, while the Trojans led with six. The next half of the match, however, the Cardinal stepped up its game, barely trailing behind USC as the Cardinal scored a total of six points during the last two periods.

Stanford looked to be out of contention when the Trojans had a 10-6 lead with less than three minutes remaining. The Cardinal responded with three goals in 96 seconds to put the pressure on USC.

In the final 10 seconds of the game, Dries missed a shot in Stanford’s last chance to tie, leaving the score at 10-9.

Senior driver Kelly Eaton led the Cardinal with four goals, all on penalties. Krueger had two goals, while Churnside, Dries and Lo each skipped in a single goal, as well. Furthermore, Oland had a total of seven saves throughout the match.

Stanford came remarkably close to pulling even, as Seidemann had three shots hit the post, but the Cardinal had to settle for second. This is the fifth time in the 10-year history of NCAA women’s water polo that Stanford has been the national runner-up.

When the Deepwater Horizon petroleum well, owned by oil company BP, exploded April 20, hundreds of gallons of oil began spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. And it hasn’t stopped. Now, U. South Florida has developed teams of researchers to help track the effects of the oil on the marine ecosystem.

One such team, comprised of USF biological oceanographers Ernst Peebles, David Jones, Ralph Kitzmiller, Holly Rolls, Kara Radabaugh, Drew Remsen and scientists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Center, set out for the Gulf of Mexico on May 5 to investigate the extent of the damage the spill has caused to microscopic marine life.

The team spent a little more than a week gathering water samples from areas in the gulf that have not yet been affected by the spill to provide samples to compare to the contaminated water harvested from their 24–hour stay in the affected area.

Peebles said the team used an underwater imaging device called a SIPPER to capture images of objects without disturbing them in their natural state.

The device then translates those images into data, making it easier for the team to analyze whether the oil has damaged the microscopic zooplankton and fish larvae central to the gulf’s food chain, Peebles said.

“The plan is to deploy the SIPPER three times and capture detailed images of the tiny droplets of oil coming from the ruptured well,” Peebles said.

The team, which will return to the College of Marine Science at the University’s St. Petersburg campus today at 9 a.m., is being transported in the gulf by USF’s R/V Weatherbird II, a research vessel operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) that is made available to all Florida state universities.

Communications and Marketing manager Vickie Chachere said the data and samples the team collects will be turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) because of the “delicate nature” surrounding the cause of the oil spill and the legal repercussions that could follow for those responsible for the spill.

“It will take the team months to analyze all of the data,” Chachere said. “And, it will all be something that will be presented in a formal report.”

John Ogden, former director of FIO, said that, depending on the currents in the gulf, the spill could be a “big event” for Florida.

“The question is, ‘What should we be doing as a nation to wean ourselves off of oil?’” he said. “Then, develop the technologies to do so.”

Some of those technologies may come from the USF School of Global Sustainability, said itsDirector Christian Wells, something many students have taken an interest in because of the spill.

“I hope that students will be encouraged to take action to examine their own impact on the environment,” he said. “And also, to participate in existing clean energy dialogues at the University.”

One such opportunity rests in he College of Engineering’s Clean Energy Research Center, which aims to develop, evaluate and promote the commercialization of renewable energy solutions. Among their accomplishments is the nation’s first 20,000-watt solar/electric charging station for electric vehicles — an advancement that could lead to a significant decrease in oil consumption.

The College of Marine Science has also taken part in the effort, creating the Ocean Circulation Group to track the spread of the oil slick through satellite imaging.

The team, which is composed of both optical and physical oceanographers, is led by physical oceanographer Robert Weisberg and has developed a series of models that have followed and predicted the spread of the oil through the northern gulf.

According to a release, Chuanmin Hu, an optical oceanographer in the group, said the team is also monitoring the spill’s movement toward the Loop Current, which could send the contaminated water past the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic coast — avoiding most of the state

Robert Buzzeo, a graduate student studying molecular biology, said if this happens it could be good news for Florida, which relies heavily on tourism to sustain the economy.

“An oil spill could be something that causes travelers to cancel their trips,” he said.

In the release, Hu estimated the size of the oil slick to be 14 times that of Tampa Bay. According to the Coast Guard, an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil have been leaking from the well per day. There are 42 gallons in a barrel.

Although sea turtles and dolphins have been found dead on the shores of neighboring gulf states, Florida officials said the long-term effects of the spill on wildlife are not yet clear.

Whatever the outcome may be, Buzzeo said the University’s efforts are a step in the right direction.

“It’s definitely encouraging to see that the University may have a role to play in correcting the situation,” he said.