2016 Endeavor Cruise (EN586)
Research vessel: R/V Endeavor
Dates: 7/23/2016 - 8/15/2016
Port: Gulfport, MS
Chief Scientist(s):
Dr. Joseph Montoya
This cruise takes the ECOGIG research team back to the Gulf of Mexico to continue their research assessing the ecological impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident (Macondo oil well blowout). This cruise will allow ECOGIG researchers to collect water column and sediment samples from a number of research sites in the Gulf in order to track the impacts of anthropogenic oil and compare them to natural oil and gas seeps and control sites.
2 gliders were deployed on July 14th to record information about the conductivity, temperature, depth, bio-optics and oxygen at several ECOGIG research sites in the Gulf. There is a glider rated for 200m (600ft) of water that will measure at GC600, and a glider rated for 100m (300ft) that will move between control sites and other areas of interest. The gliders are currently reporting data from their positions every 5 hours, which is viewable here. The scientific party on the R/V Endeavor plans to recover these gliders during the current cruise.
10 undergraduate students and 2 faculty, all participating in the STEM SEAS program join ECOGIG's Dr. Joseph Montoya and several graduate students onboard the R/V Endeavor as it transits from Morehead City, NC to Gulfport, MS. The STEM SEAS students will learn more about ECOGIG's research as well as general oceanographic research on the trip!