Other NIUST scientist are currently in the Gulf of Mexico observing the oil spill. To read more on their discoveries, visit the Gulf Oil Blog from the University of Georgia Department of Marine Sciences.

Our cruise is winding down and we’re in the process of making copies of data, cleaning and rinsing gear, and packing our boxes.  While the original goal of this cruise was to use our AUVs to map hydrates and shipwrecks, the actuality of this cruise was perhaps more productive and useful than we could haveRead the story …

Our weather started out pretty rough but improved steadily over the course of the day and is now quite tolerable. We continued our efforts to map the apparent deep flow of oil by extending out transect and sampling on either side of it. These data continue to support our hypothesis that the currents at depthRead the story …

Click to enlarge The weather today was less than perfect so we focused on extending our search for the deep plumes further to the west and southwest as shown in the attached map and table.  Although the fluorescence signal dropped out after about 5 miles from the site, a significant signal remains in the transmissometerRead the story …

Today’s highlight was the discovery of a feature that could be the most important finding of the trip. We have been hypothesizing that some of the oil that is coming out of the well is most likely not getting to the surface so we engaged in two efforts to find subsurface oil. The first effortRead the story …

National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST) The National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST) was established in 2002 by the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi in partnership with NOAA’s Undersea Research Program (NURP) to develop and apply new technologies that enhance undersea research. NIUST is made up ofRead the story …

Click to enlarge map In spite of the new techniques put into play today, which always require some adjustments before they run smoothly, we were able to get a lot done. The most significant observation today was the presence of hundreds of dead velella (by the wind sailors). These aren’t all that common in theRead the story …

Today’s activity focused on the exchange of personnel and equipment during a brief port call. We arrived in Cocodrie at around 6:00am and left for the USM facility at the Stennis Space Center (3 hours’ drive each way) in preparation for the next leg of the cruise. Planned sampling activities include: Towed Acrobat profiling vehicleRead the story …

After our last core of the day yesterday, we once again hove to,this time at a site 20 miles due east of the Deepwater Horizon site. At that time (midnight), the winds were calm and no oil or odor were evident. At 04:00, the winds picked up from the west and a sheen of oilRead the story …

This table and map image list all of the stations visited to date, including the 4 widely separated cores obtained today. Click image to enlarge Today we continued our coring and covered a much wider area than yesterday but at lower sampling resolution. We started a transect at a point due east of the MississippiRead the story …