Potential impacts of the Loop Current on Downstream Marine Ecosystems after DWH Oil Spill

Circulation in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is dominated by mesoscale features that include the Loop Current (LC), Loop Current Rings (LCRs), and smaller frontal eddies. During May-June 2010, while oil was still flowing from the Macondo well following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) platform explosion on April 20, 2010, drifter trajectories, satellite observations, and numerical simulations indicated a potential for direct connectivity between the northern Gulf and the Florida Straits via the LC system. This pathway could have potentially entrained particles, including northern GOM contaminants related to the oil spill, carrying them directly towards the coastal ecosystems of south Florida and northern Cuba. To assess this connectivity, and to evaluate the potential of oil impacts on economically important GOM fisheries, an interdisciplinary shipboard survey was conducted in the eastern Gulf during July 2010. This cruise sampled the LC, LCR, and frontal eddies to a depth of 2000 m. The assembled subsurface measurements represent one of only a few data sets collected across the dominant GOM mesoscale circulation features at a time when there was great concern about the potential long-range spreading of DWH related contaminants. Direct observations such as these are critical for the assessment of particle trajectory and circulations models utilized during the spill, and for the improvement of future numerical forecast products.

To determine potential impact of oil spill on ichthyoplankton in downstream regions

Possibly subject to a litigation hold because it is a Deepwater Horizons Cruise

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