NOAAS RESPONSE BP DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL Gunnar

NOAA’S RESPONSE BP DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL Gunnar Lauenstein, February 2, 2011

Tragically, oil spills happen… 2

DWH Trustee Council Membership 3 Federal Trustees: U. S. DOC – NOAA U. S. DOI – FWS, NPS, BLM, BIA U. S. DOD -Navy State Trustees: Alabama Florida Louisiana Mississippi Texas Trustee Council: ◦ Goal: Work cooperatively to determine the magnitude and extent of injury to natural resources in the GOM from the DWH spill and fully restore those injured resources

Current Assessment Activities for DWH 4 Technical Working Groups (TWGs) State and Federal natural resource trustees and BP implementing pre-/post -impact field studies for multiple resources: Includes water, sediment, tissue sampling and observations from planes, ships and shore Includes potential impacts from the response

NRDA Assessment Activities 5

Sampling Snapshot: 6 Over 89 offshore research cruises ~27, 000 NRDA environmental samples: 13, 019 water 4, 199 sediment, and 5, 815 tissue samples. ~4, 200 linear miles of shoreline surveyed Wildlife: Live oiled wildlife captured: >2, 079 birds and 456 sea turtles. Dead visibly oiled wildlife collected: 2, 263 birds, 18 sea turtles; 5 marine mammals. Several hundred transmitters on wide-ranging species Deepwater communities impacts

Vessels 7 Collecting & surveying impacts to varieties of fish/mammals and seafood safety sampling Performing sub-surface testing to determine presence of oil and monitor water quality THOMAS JEFFERSON GORDON GUNTER PISCES DELAWARE II Numerous

Mussel Watch Special Sampling 8 TBD Oyster Tissue Organics Oyster Tissue Metals Oyster Tissue Histopathology H 2 O Salinity H 2 O PAHs H 2 O VOAs Sediment Organics Sediment Metals Sediment VOAs Sediment P 450 Toxicity Sediment Benthos Number of Sites Sampled 49 49 42 45 43 45 44 44 44 43 41

Human Health NOAA & FDA Collaboration 9 Oyster Metals Analyses - arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, tin, zinc - nickel & vanadium Years of samples - 2007/2008 & - November 2010

Relative Amount of Flocculant 10

Sediment Core 11

Federal Web Portal 12 www. restorethegulf. gov Clear and accessible information and resources for the public “One-stop” repository for news, data and operational updates related to administration-wide efforts

QUESTIONS? Gunnar. Lauenstein@noaa. gov