NGI Researchers Discuss Lack of Oil Spill Research Funding

April 23, 2013

John Valentine and Monty Graham, NGI Council of Fellows members, discuss the lack of funding with the news media for basic monitoring of marine populations, both before and after the Gulf oil spill. While millions of dollars are being spent studying the effect of dispersants and oil on the eggs and larvae of anchovies, killifish, and tuna, and millions more are dedicated to looking for the spill's signature contamination in corals, oysters and other creatures, scientists say it has become nearly impossible to find grants to fund population surveys. Without a thorough understanding of how the Gulf of Mexico should look in terms of the creatures living in it, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to determine what damages may have been caused by the oil spill.

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