Scientists from the National Aquarium and the Johns Hopkins University are gearing up to study the ecosystem of Sarasota Bay before crude oil from the BP Deepwater blowout reaches southwest Florida waters.
Working in cooperation with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, the Maryland researchers will collect samples of sediments, water and marine organisms as a baseline for comparison later, if the oil reaches the area.
"We want to make sure we have that 'pre' information, otherwise it will be almost impossible to obtain meaningful values for the damage that will have occurred to the natural resources," said Erik Rifkin, interim executive director of the National Aquarium Conservation Center.
The center designed the study and will receive up to $200,000 from the National Aquarium Institute to fund the first phase. If the oil does eventually reach Sarasota Bay, more money will be sought to study the effects of the oil on the bay's ecosystem.
On June 28, the Mote Marine Lab began gathering bottom-dwelling organisms, including clams, oysters and crabs, Rifkin said. Lab personnel will also deploy semi-permeable membrane devices to absorb any organic contaminants in the water.
"They are virtual fish," Rifkin said. After three or four weeks, fats in the devices will have absorbed organic compounds from oil, much as fish would, allowing scientists to identify what's in the water and how much of it local fish would have accumulated in their tissues.
"You avoid all the problems associated with variation in individual animals," he said. "It's very effective in helping us understand what's going on over the long term."
But real animals will also be sampled, including fish, spotted eagle rays and bottlenose dolphins.
Once the samples are analyzed, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Center for Contaminant Transport, Fate and Remediation will try to characterize, in mathematical models, how toxic components of the crude oil move from the water, into the sediments and the food chain.
Rifkin and a number of aquarium personnel will travel to Florida for the work. A post-doctoral research associate from Hopkins, and one or two others, also will participate in the sampling, supported by two $75,000 grants, from Hopkins and the aquarium.
The research design, and the computer models, will then be available for use elsewhere in the Gulf and along the southeastern Atlantic coast, if needed, to predict how contaminants from an oil spill could be expected to affect exposed ecosystems.
"We don't know if the oil will ever get into the [Sarasota] bay; nobody knows," Rifkin said. "So it's prudent for institutions concerned about this to do the types of in-depth sampling and analysis to determine what's occurring naturally, to contrast to impacted areas.
"Anybody who wants to use the information, or our approach, is welcome to it," Rifkin said. The study's findings will eventually be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Frank.roylance@baltsun.com