Episode 1202: A Decade After Deepwater

Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, scientists are still studying the devastating impacts on the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting spill became one of the largest environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. Where did the oil go? Have the deep-sea corals recovered from the “dirty blizzard” which fell to the seafloor during the spill? Did widely applied dispersants help or hurt the oil-eating bacteria they are meant to assist? As researchers work to answer these questions and others, they also look ahead to what may happen next, and use lessons learned to prepare for the next big spill.

Experts

Meet the experts featured in this episode.

Episode Photos

USCG

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Forty-one miles off the Louisiana coast, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by BP exploded into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, 2010.

NOAA

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The oil spill affected nearly 68,000 square miles of ocean surface and damaged 1,300 miles of shoreline across five states.

NOAA Fisheries

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BP’s Macondo wellhead discharged roughly 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.

USCG

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Authorities worked for months to clean up the spill, including response efforts such as booming and burning the oil at the surface.

NOAA Fisheries

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At depth, ROVs sprayed dispersants meant for surface application in an attempt to break the oil down into smaller globules for microorganisms to biodegrade.

Changing Seas

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Erik Cordes, Ph.D. at Temple University has studied deep sea corals for more than two decades. He has spent the last ten years looking at the spill’s impact on the corals.

Ivan Hurzeler

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Cordes has led several expeditions to the Gulf of Mexico to study the oil spill's impact on corals.

Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc./Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

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The deep-sea coral species most impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was Paramuricea.

Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc./Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

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In some locations the corals were devastated by the spill’s impacts, with coral tissue falling off of the skeleton.

Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc./Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

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In 2013, Cordes led a team on an ECOGIG cruise aboard the EV Nautilus to look at the Paramuricea coral near the Deepwater Horizon site.

Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc./Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

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Cordes' team sampled corals from near the site as well as sites far away from the spill to act as a control group.

Changing Seas

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Videographer David Diez shoots footage of Cordes working in his lab at Temple University.

Changing Seas

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Cordes compares two samples of coral. One shows a heavy impact from the oil spill.

Changing Seas

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Producer Liz Smith interviews Erik Cordes, Ph.D. in his lab at Temple University about his work with deep sea corals and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Changing Seas

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The Changing Seas team met up with Samantha Joye, Ph.D. at the University of Georgia who has studied the spill for the past ten years.

Changing Seas

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Joye’s team has been studying the microbes that biodegrade oil to see what impacts their ability to “eat” the oil after a spill.

Changing Seas

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Videographer Jeremy Nicholson documents Joye’s team at work in her lab.

Changing Seas

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Videographers Jeremy Nicholson and Yoandy Vidal work with Joye’s team to set up a special shot of them at work.

Changing Seas

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Joye’s lab assistants Rachel Steffen and Josh Parrish roll a cart of specimens to their lab to be sampled.

Changing Seas

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Bottles containing seawater with varying amounts of oil, dispersants, and nutrients. The bottle of seawater in front contains dispersant and oil.

Changing Seas

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Videographer Jeremy Nicholson documents Rachel and Josh’s sampling work in the lab.

Changing Seas

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Videographers Jeremy Nicholson and Yoandy Vidal follow along as lab assistant Josh Parrish works with the lab samples.

Changing Seas

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The lab samples are analyzed to better understand the impact of dispersants and nutrients on the oil-eating microbes.

Changing Seas

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Producer Liz Smith interviews Claire Paris, Ph.D. at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School. Paris’ work is focused on computer modeling of the oil spill.

Changing Seas

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Paris holds a bottle of oil from the spill site. Her work has shown how the depth of a well can impact the movement of oil droplets through the water column.

Changing Seas

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In their lab at the University of South Florida, David Hollander, Ph.D. and Steven Murawski, Ph.D. discuss the importance of looking ahead to how we will respond to the next big spill.

Changing Seas

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Producer Liz Smith and Videographer Mike Malanga talk with David Hollander, Ph.D. about the use of sub-sea dispersants directly at the wellhead.

Changing Seas

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Producer Liz Smith interviews Steven Murawski, Ph.D. about lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the alarming spread of wells to deeper sites.

Image Credits

Changing Seas would like to thank the following individuals and institutions who kindly allowed their footage, images and other media to be used in this production:

Ivan Hurzeler and Acid Horizon, LLC 2014

Ivan Hurzeler and DEEP SEARCH

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc.

Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

United States Geological Survey

NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

NOAA Fisheries

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Department of Defense

United States Coast Guard

Mimi Armstrong deGruy and The Film Crew, Inc.