NOAA’s Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program (DARRP) is coordinating data collection efforts with partners in five states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas), and the Department of the Interior (including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management). BP is also participating in many of the data collection efforts.

Together, we are collecting information on potential impacts to fish, shellfish, marine mammals, turtles, birds, and other sensitive resources as well as their habitats, including wetlands, beaches, mudflats, bottom sediments, corals, and the water column. We are also assessing any lost human uses of these resources, such as fishing, hunting, and beach closures. Dozens of teams are in the field conducting daily surveys and collecting samples.

NOAA Assessment Activities

• Response and assessment teams have surveyed 1,800 miles of shoreline and over 11,000 samples have been collected to date.
• More than 40 offshore research cruises are characterizing oil on and below the water surface and the impact to biological communities.
• Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) teams are documenting the presence of oil and collecting oil samples for fingerprinting—to confirm the origin of the oil. Teams are conducting initial injury assessment studies at more than 50 shoreline sites a day to collect data on the degree and extent of habitat oiling.
• Flyovers monitor populations of marine mammals and turtles, document their presence in impacted areas, and locate stranded animals.
• Teams are assessing the loss of human uses, such as recreational beach days, boat and fishing trips, due to the spill.

Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the morning of July 26, 2010, a failure occurred in a 30-inch diameter pipeline releasing approximately 19,500 barrels (819,000 gallons) of crude oil into a tributary creek of the Kalamazoo River in Marshall, MI. Oil traveled approximately 30 miles downstream in the Kalamazoo River. Containment and absorbent booms have been placed and the oil has not passed Morrow Lake, located about 10 miles east of Kalamazoo, MI. NOAA’s Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program (DARRP) is working with natural resource co-trustees (US Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Michigan) and with Enbridge (the Responsible Party) to collect information on exposure and potential impacts of the oil spill on fish, mussels, and turtles as well as their habitats, including wetlands, floodplains, bottom sediments, and the water column. Field teams are currently conducting surveys and collecting samples and the trustees are also working to identify resources at risk and develop protocols for future surveys. Highlights of some of these activities include:

• Several rounds of water sampling have been conducted throughout locations in the affected area and upstream.
• Rapid boat-based riverbank surveying was conducted to characterize the extent of oiling on riverbanks.
• Study plans for mussel assessments are being finalized.
• Field teams have begun collecting smallmouth bass and redhorse suckers to assess their exposure to oil.
• Trustees are observing and documenting any impacts that result from cleanup work, such as habitat loss when oiled overhanging tree branches must be removed.

Learn more about the response to this spill.