It’s been nearly two months since a group of USM students and faculty set sail for the Gulf of Mexico, on a mission to test the long term effect of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the health of whales and their prey species. The team saw its more successful stretch last week when it biopsied more than twice as many whales in two days as they had in the two months prior. As of last Friday, Sept. 10, they had successfully collected samples from 43 different whales.
Since their departure on July 17, the crew has been trying to answer questions about the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While the torrent of oil has been plugged, the total effects are still unknown. Much of the oil has gone somewhere without being accounted for, and the full impact of the event expands beyond just the oil. The potential damage from chemical dispersants is also in question. “I don’t think there is any question about it, the dispersants are known to be toxic and they are in the water. The question is, how toxic?” said John Wise, a toxicology professor, principal investigator of the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology at USM and science director of the voyage.
The Task
The vessel and crew crew spend their long days trying to find whales in the vast expanse of the Gulf. Ideally, two students are on watch during daylight hours. One stands on top of the pilot house and one on the main mast. The crows nest, sitting 60 feet up the 88 foot tall main mast, usually pitches too much to be usable. For that reason, most of the watches are made from the lower observation platform that sits 25 feet above the deck. Even in moderate seas, holding a watch from there can be taxing.
When whales are spotted, everybody has a job related to getting the samples. Two shooters armed with crossbows take up positions at the front of the ship. In order to sample the whale tissue, arrows with short hollow point are used. They have a wider styrofoam casing behind the point to keep the dart from going deep into the whale, ensuring the dart remains floating and visible for retrieval. The primary takes seat on the end of a 30 foot long pole sticking out from the starboard side of the boat. It allows easier shots so the Odyssey can maneuver closer without spooking the whale pods. A backup shooter stands on the bow of the ship. The remaining crew are kept busying logging data, processing samples, taking identifying pictures of the whales sampled, retrieving darts and tracking whales.
The task without whales in sight is another challenge. Days can feature strong winds and rough seas that prevent watches, or dead winds and bright overhead that offers no shade on the boat’s deck. “Life on the boat’s a lot slower than it is back at home,” said Johnny Wise, a junior biology major. “The first week seemed like an eternity.”
Even after being spotted, the whales are difficult to track between dives. Depending on the species and their mood, dives can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half. The hydrophone equipment can track sounds underwater, but it has been finicky throughout the voyage. One chase on the fifth day at sea lasted for three hours in less than calm waters. They attempted to follow a pod of six sperm whales, but it resulted in no successful biopsies. The pod spent an hour underwater at a time, and the crew gave up do to a combination of weather and exhaustion.
At sea, simple tasks become very challenging. Space is at a premium on the boat, and in anything but the calmest seas, the boat pitches. Simpler tasks like staying in shape are complicated. More critical ones such as preparing the cell samples involve strong hurdles and greater risks. They have to carve up whale blubber with a very sharp ceramic knife under a vent hood. All the while, the boat is rolling and pitching, endangering the workers’ fingers, as well as the rare, easily damaged, samples.
Plenty of time is spent in port as well. The voyage down involved a stop in New York City, and several in Florida. Early in August they stopped in Saint Petersburg and docked behind the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. The head of Greenpeace was on board and everybody got a tour. At nearly every port, the members of the media are on board the Odyssey interviewing the crew. This first weekend of September saw the boat docked in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. They spent time being interviewed by National Geographic and Alexandra Cousteau, the granddaughter of famous undersea explorer Jaques Cousteau.
All Hands
At the center of the voyage is the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology. John Wise’s wife Sandra Wise is the director of cytogenetics and genomic instability in the lab, and currently also fills the roll of the ship’s cook. Their children, all undergraduate students at USM and all employees of the lab, are involved in the voyage as well. Johnny Wise has been aboard for the entire trip. Between Maine and Florida, he was the only one licensed to supervise the biopsies. Cathy Wise toured earlier before returning to the college for classes and soccer, and was the first person to grow whale cells at sea. She continues to do so in the lab. James Wise remains in Maine working at the lab, where he tests oil dispersants on human cells and manages voyage updates to the website.
The crew of the ship also involves a rotating collection of undergraduate and graduate students from the lab who do tours of varying lengths on the vessel. Ocean Alliance, a non-profit marine research organization, supplies the ship and its sailing crew.
Life on board is taxing, and days can stretch one another from before sunrise to after sunset. The long hours in a small space can wear people down. After successfully sampling 18 whales on Friday morning, and hoping for more in the afternoon, John Wise said he was feeling worn out. “We’re wrecked. We’re just really tired,” he said.
“The hardest part is when we get somebody new. They get seasick and aren’t used to being on the water,” said Johnny Wise. “Until they get used to it, we have to work harder.”
Despite every everybody’s accounts of the voyage mentioning exhaustion and the effects of rough seas, those who’ve been on the trip keep summing it up with huge grins and few words. “Awesome. Wicked cool,” said PhD student Kellie Joyce. Still on board and talking via satellite, Johnny Wise’s only needed three words to describe the voyage: “I love it.”
To follow along with the voyage and read daily reports from the crew, visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/toxicology/gulf and http://www.oceanalliance.org/.