Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems One Year after the Deepwater Horizon

Presented by the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation

Monday, June 6, 2011
4-5 pm
Congressional Meeting Room South, Capitol Visitors Center

The Gulf of Mexico is vital to the US economy, supporting a large oil and gas industry, commercial and recreational fishery production, shipping, and tourism. Its cultural significance to the Nation is great and the resilience of its inhabitants in the face of disasters has inspired the rest of America. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the most recent environmental impact in a series of cumulative changes to Gulf ecosystems, which together have had significant socioeconomic consequences. Scientists affiliated with the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) have studied Gulf ecosystem responses to these cumulative effects over many years and can provide data-rich information about the effects of the oil spill and clean-up on Gulf ecosystems.

CERF is the leading scientific society dedicated to US coastal environments. Its strong and large Gulf coast membership has the expertise and experience to put the BP spill into a long-term perspective of Gulf ecosystems and economies so critical to the Nation. This briefing will provide the latest scientific information about Gulf ecosystems, including human societal effects, a year after the BP spill. The briefing will highlight advances in our understanding of complex Gulf ecosystems and gaps in our scientific understanding that must be addressed.

Speakers:

Dr. Donald F. Boesch
What Will We Learn From The Gulf Oil Spill?
President and Professor
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Dr. Boesch is a Professor of Marine Science and President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Dr. Boesch is a biological oceanographer who has conducted research in coastal and continental shelf environments along the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, eastern Australia and the East China Sea. He has published two books and more than 90 papers on marine benthos, estuaries, wetlands, continental shelves, oil pollution, nutrient over-enrichment, environmental assessment and monitoring and science policy. Presently his research focuses on the use of science in ecosystem management. He was a panel member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, and is Chair of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council, and a member of the National Academies Committee on America's Climate Choices. He received the Outdoors Maryland Award for Stewardship of the Environment from Maryland Public Television in 2010.

Dr. Nancy N. Rabalais
How to Restore a Damaged Ecosystem
Executive Director and Professor
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

Dr. Rabalais is a Professor and Executive Director at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Dr. Rabalais' research interests include the dynamics of hypoxic environments, interactions of large rivers with the coastal ocean, estuarine and coastal eutrophication, and science policy. She is a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Mississippi River and the Clean Water Act, and the Committee on the Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon-252 Oil Spill on Ecosystem Services in the Gulf of Mexico. She recently served on the Committees on the Evolution of the National Oceanographic Research Fleet and Review of Water and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network. She is an elected member of the Board of Trustees for the Consortium on Ocean Leadership, the Council for the University National-Oceanographic Laboratory System, Vice Chair of the National Sea Grant Advisory Board, President-Elect of the Southern Association of Marine Labs, and Member of the Board of Directors for the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System.

Dr. David W. Yoskowitz
How Has the Gulf Coast Economy Recovered?
Endowed Chair for Socio-Economics
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Dr. Yoskowitz is the HRI Endowed Chair for Socio-Economics at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Professor of Economics in the College of Business, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. His work focuses on elucidating the link between environmental well-being and human well-being, and moving practice into policy. He is leading an effort to inventory and value ecosystem services for the Gulf of Mexico. He leads the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Services Collaboratory, is the designated expert on the Environmental Protection Agency's Ecosystem Services Research Program pilot study in Tampa Bay, and works with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance on ecosystem services. He also is exploring the economic impact of climate change on the coastal zone, specifically sea level rise and freshwater inflow and is currently working with Mexican colleagues on a socio-economic assessment of the Gulf of Mexico for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's Large Marine Ecosystem project. He serves on the National Research Council Committee on the Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon-252 Oil Spill on Ecosystem Services in the Gulf of Mexico. He also sits on the Ecosystem Scientific and Statistical Committee and Socio-Economic Panel for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Moderator:
Dr. Susan Williams
President, CERF
Professor
Bodega Marine Laboratory
University of California, Davis