Fifteen years after the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill poured an estimated 134 million gallons of oil into the marine environment, vital long-term monitoring work involving University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa oceanographers continues to chart the slow path to recovery for the region’s deep-sea coral communities, providing critical information to guide their restoration.
Fifteen years after the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill poured an estimated 134 million gallons of oil into the marine environment, vital long-term monitoring work involving University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa oceanographers continues to chart the slow path to recovery for the region’s deep-sea coral communities, providing critical information to guide their restoration. The marine organisms, living at depths of 1,000 to 2,000 meters, were directly impacted by the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
In October, two oceanographers from the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) participated in the latest expedition that revisited monitoring sites off Louisiana. The team’s mission was to capture new images of more than 200 individual coral colonies using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with high-resolution still and video cameras.
“Processes in the deep ocean are very slow,” said Fanny Girard, assistant professor of oceanography at SOEST and lead investigator in the project. “Many of these animals look exactly the same as they did in 2011. Itʻs a sobering reminder that recovery in the deep sea takes time.”
Read More: University of Hawaii
Image: Coral, brittle star, molluscs and anemones at 1,400m. (Photo credit: NOAA, Oceaneering International, Inc.)
