![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog-preprod\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2010\/05\/NOAA_oysters.jpg\" "\\"NOAA\\"")
<\/a><\/dt>\nAs volunteers train and policymakers debate, scientists are pooling their datasets for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is the behind the scenes portion of region-wide preparations for the impending arrival of oil on land. Along the Gulf coast states, researchers are offering years of sediment, water and plankton samples to the cause of assessing pre-impact conditions in the Gulf. Meanwhile, researchers from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST) are collecting samples from the seafloor and water column closer to the source of the leaks.<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, researchers on an NIUST research vessel called the <\/span>Pelican<\/span><\/em><\/a>, operated by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, were redirected by NOAA to the Gulf of Mexico Consortium\u2019s Methane Hydrate Seafloor Observatory, about nine miles from the Deepwater Horizon site. According to Fred Gorell, public affairs officer for NOAA\u2019s Exploration and Research program, the team had been headed to conduct deep sea coral explorations when the researchers on board decided that their equipment and expertise were needed for more urgent samples. NOAA officials agreed, and now the researchers are on their second mission to gather preliminary ocean data near the leaks.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n The first mission made use of equipment originally intended for the deep sea coral expedition and equipment added specifically for the oil spill area. Two preprogrammed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV<\/a>s) were <\/span>exchanged for a box corer, which was placed some 5,000 feet onto the seafloor\u2014the depth at which the leak is occurring\u2014to take sediment samples.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> Using an instrument called a CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth), they measured the water\u2019s salinity (and therefore conductivity), temperature, density and oxygen concentration at various water column depths. They also searched for marine organisms and gathered bottles of water samples to take back to the NIUST lab.<\/span><\/p>\n As Ray Highsmith, executive director for NIUST, said of the first mission in a NOAA <\/span>release<\/span><\/a>, \u201cWe plan to sample as close to the well head as is safe, reasonable and allowable. We then plan to travel northwestward toward our long-term study site.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The second mission, as Gorell described\u2014launched on May 9\u2014loaded new equipment and researchers and headed back to the site. With the new equipment, the scientists plan to take more targeted samples. They now have a remote operated vehicle (<\/span>ROV<\/span><\/a>)\u2014tethered to the ship and controlled by the researchers\u2014that will \u201clook at the collection of oil that may have congealed in balls at different depths,\u201d said Gorell.<\/span><\/p>\n They also have a <\/span>flourometer<\/span><\/a> on board, which will cast a beam of light to analyze the water composition\u2014specifically in this case, the amount of oil present in the water. Last, they will lower and leave behind a High-frequency Autonomous Acoustic Recording Package (HARP) on the seafloor to record the sounds of marine life in the area. When asked about the general conditions of the sea, Gorell said:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the first mission they said the conditions were fine; the second leg was getting quite choppy and hard for operating the equipment. [But things are on track now.] They saw areas where there was no oil, they saw certain areas where oil was fairly significant. In some areas there was oil below the surface, some where dispersants had been used, some where dispersants had not been used at all. They really saw some of every condition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The data gathered and analyzed by NOAA and other supporting labs is, \u201cessentially, data that [are] gathered before any sinking of oil\u201d below the surface of the water, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>On the coasts, data collection is taking a much different form: Scientists from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are pooling their preliminary datasets together to aid NOAA, specifically the <\/span>National Centers for Coastal Oceans Science<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>Southeast Fisheries Science Center<\/span><\/a>, in developing baseline conditions of the Gulf. Researchers are collecting water, sediment and oyster samples from 60 sites from the Texas\/Louisiana border to southeastern Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n