Deepwater Horizon

This data quantifies the Deepwater Horizon Spill's impact on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Fishery Closures and Openings

These maps and data represent the Emergency Fishery Closures and Openings in the Gulf of Mexico due to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

• Archived Map
• All GIS Data

ESRI GIS File Types

ESRI Metadata Files

Fishery Closures Data by Date

Changes to the fisheries closure regulatory boundaries are documented below. The files are organized by the date that they were made publicly available.

Climatology Products: Deepwater Horizon Support

• Transects
• Image Source Data

Average Spring Parameters

Density relative to 0 dbar (kg/m3) 

Meridional

• Image
• Postscript file

Zonal

• Image
• Postscript File

Temperature (°C)

Meridional

• Image
• Postscript File

Zonal

• Image
• Postscript File

Salinity

Meridional

• Image
• Postscript File

Zonal 

• Image
• Postscript File

Dissolved Oxygen

Depth

• 500m
• 1000m
• 1500m
• Meridional
• Zonal 

Climatologies & Data

Interactive Maps

• Coastal Ecosystems Map
• Coastal Water Temperature Guide
• Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Watch

Ocean Currents Data

Moored Buoy: Time Series

Historical time series data in the Gulf of Mexico (18°-31°N, 80°-98°W) in comma separated value (CSV) files for each station. The time series data, collected between 1975 and 1993, includes ocean currents, temperature, salinity, and pressure measured typically at successive times, spaced at uniform time intervals.

• KMZ
• Station Inventory 
• Time Series Directories
• Time Series Data Zip File

Other Projects and Information

• Historical Buoy Data, Eastern and Western Gulf of Mexico: water temp, wind speed, air temp, wave data, pressure
• Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS), Flower Garden Banks
• Joint Archive for Shipboard ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler)
• Data and Information collected from support of the IXTOC oil spill incident in 1979
• Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) Atlas, Gulf of Mexico, Upper Coast of Texas 1996, Louisiana 2003, Mississippi 2009, Alabama 2007, Florida 1995-2003 maps and geographic information systems data. ESI is a widely used approach to sensitive environment mapping in the U.S.
• Gulf of Mexico Offshore Monitoring Experiment (GOOMEX): marine chemistry, fish & shell-fish surveys, benthic organisms, pollutants, and current meter data.
• CHEMO II: Stability and Change in Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities.

Resources on Oil Spills, Response, and Restoration

This collection includes print and media resources pertaining to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and information on previous spills and associated remedial actions selected from the online NOAA Library and Information Network Catalog (NOAALINC).

The content of the Bibliography includes information sources concerned both with the harmful effects of oil and chemical spills to marine habitats, their associated living marine resources and the cultural and economic impacts of such spills.

Bibliography

The bibliography below attempts to list all of the published research and expert commentary that has resulted from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It includes peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, technical reports released by scientific agencies and research institutions, and editorials published in peer-reviewed journals.

Deepwater Horizon: A Preliminary Bibliography of Published Research and Expert Commentary (13 May 2014)

The NOAA Institutional Repository (IR) includes a collection of Deepwater Horizon Materials. This searchable, online collection includes information from NCEI, libraries, and websites, as well as from federal and state partners.

Datasets compiled by organizations that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response.

Quality Controlled Analytical Chemistry Data

This collection includes quality controlled data from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill Event Response Phase compiled by Federal and state environmental management agencies, as well as BP and its contractors from April, 2010 to June, 2011. These data represent the culmination of a quality-control process overseen by NOAA.

Data were originally uploaded into the EPA Scribe data management system (see Scribe Database Collection, this page), and later transferred to NOAA’s Query Manager system for final evaluation. This collection consists of extractions from Query Manager, and supersedes the Scribe Database Collection.

Download Data

Content

Datasets | Documentation

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)

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CSIRO data collected during the response to the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico onboard the M/V Ryan Chouest Cruise 1 through Cruise 15 from June 5, 2010 to September 14, 2010 (Accession 0086283).

Structured Data

CSIRO Shipboard Measurements: CTD vertical profiles, towed fluorometry, onboard hydrocarbon sensors and GCMS data.

Unstructured Data

Datasets | Documentation

DFO Canada Database

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Data collected by Centre for Offshore Oil Gas and Energy Research (COOGER) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) at-sea monitoring operations on board vessels R/V Brooks McCall and R/V Ocean Veritas. From May 8 through August 24, 2010 the DFO COOGER team maintained a continuous monitoring program that recovered a total of 3197 unique water samples from 404 stations at depths down to 2000 m for analysis of dispersant effectiveness by characterizing oil droplet size and UV-fluorescence. This collection of data is organized into nine database tables which include all data used by COOGER to conduct analyses, including:

1. LISST data for in situ deployments;
2. discrete LISST data collected aboard R/V Brooks McCall and R/V Ocean Veritas;
3. UV Fluorescence data collected aboard the R/V Brooks McCall and R/V Ocean Veritas;
4. Hydrocarbon chemistry data;
5. CTD trace data;
6. CTD trace data matched to Niskin bottles;
7. R/V Brooks McCall and R/V Ocean Veritas sampling station data (date, depth, location, and distance from wellhead); and
8. Wellhead data including daily oil flow and recovery, and dispersant application data.

DFO Canada Database Datasets | Documentation

Scribe Database Collection

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The Scribe Database Collection includes 14 databases containing data from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill Event Response Phase. These databases are the work of Federal agencies, state environmental management agencies and BP and its contractors. Information types include locations, descriptions, and analysis of water, sediment, oil, tar, dispersant, air and other environmental samples. Note: the water and sediment chemistry data from these databases has been extracted by cruise and archived separately in association with the other cruise-related data accessions. See the DWH Ocean In Situ Data page for access to those accessions.

Documentation | Supporting Materials

JAG Subsurface Dispersed Oil and Oxygen Levels

The Deepwater Horizon Joint Analysis Group (JAG) for Surface and Sub-Surface Oceanography, Oil and Dispersant Data was a working group with membership from federal agencies, BP, and academia that was formed to analyze sub-surface oceanographic data being derived from the ongoing coordinated sampling as part of the spill response. JAG was created to provide comprehensive characterization of the Gulf of Mexico sub-surface conditions as well as the fate and transport of dispersed petroleum as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. JAG findings were published in a series of reports for the Unified Area Command as well as the public. This accession contains Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon and Volatile Organic Analysis data from laboratory analysis, as well as in situ Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter and dissolved oxygen data. This dataset was compiled as part of the final JAG summary report, and referred to in Appendix 3 of that report, NOAA Technical Report NOS OR&R 27 (2012).

Citation for JAG summary report: Joint Analysis Group, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2011). Review of Subsurface Dispersed Oil and Oxygen Levels Associated with the Deepwater Horizon MC252 Spill of National Significance. NOAA Technical Report NOS OR&R 27. The report itself may be accessed through the NOAA Central Library.

Content

JAG Analytical Chemistry Table | JAG CTD Summary Table

Ship Instruments

Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD)

An ocean instrument includes a pressure sensor (measured pressure is converted to depth), a resistance temperature measurement device (usually a platinum thermometer), and a conductivity sensor used to estimate salinity. CTDs are usually mounted on a metal frame and lowered through the water column suspended from a cable. Example CTD Plot.

eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT)

A probe that measures water temperature as it falls. A very thin wire transmits the temperature data to the ship where it is recorded for later analysis. The probe is designed to fall at a known rate, so that the depth of the probe can be inferred from the time lapsed from launch.

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)

This instrument measures currents beneath a ship while underway. Sound signals sent from the moving ship bounce back to receivers aboard the ship. This provides a profile of water movement relative to the ship-precise modern navigation, allowing the ship's motion to be subtracted from the data. These devices are also used on moorings and profilers and, along with acoustic backscattering, measure animal biomass. Particles in the path of the sound waves, mostly plankton, reflect a small part of the sound energy back toward receivers, allowing researchers to make remote estimates of the sizes and numbers of animals present in the water column. The Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP) is an ADCP which can be lowered on a cable from the surface.

Hydrocarbon Sensor Array

A sensor platform developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, for detecting different types of hydrocarbons at varying sensitivities, and in real time. The platform consists of a number of hydrocarbon sensors assembled to produce a highly sensitive and discriminatory hydrocarbon sensor capability designed to detect and differentiate hydrocarbons in a marine environment. The platform enables environmental monitoring, studying of ocean changes and the measurement of human impacts on marine environments.

Laser In Situ Scattering and Transmissometer (LISST)

An instrument that measures the size distribution of particles 5 to 250 microns in diameter. LISST generates diagrams of the size distribution of particles and small aggregates in the water column without disturbing them by collecting them in water bottles. Particles' sizes influence their optical properties and settling dynamics, but many of the aggregates fall apart in water bottles before they can be returned to the lab and measured.

Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS)

A net system for measuring plankton in the ocean. The MOCNESS is towed behind a research vessel at low speed and consists of numerous nets of varying mesh sizes. Each net can be opened and shut independently so that it samples a discrete patch of water. The net enables biologists to catch zooplankton and nekton in various depth horizons typically anywhere in the upper 500 m of the oceans. There is also an array of sensors mounted on the instrument frame that relays water conditions up to the ship in real time, typically including CTD, PAR (photosynthetically available light), transmissometry and fluorescence sensors. The sensor data help researchers match what they find in their samples to the physical properties of the seawater.

Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP)

A multi-purpose instrument for aiding in the collection of both shallow and deep water data sets. The MVP's primary function is to allow accurate data collection without the need to stop the vessel. The system includes a smart winch and deployment system which is completely autonomous and can be controlled by computer without the requirement for personnel on deck. Sensors that have been used with the MVP system include sound velocity, CTD, Laser Optical Particle Counter (LOPC) and fluorometer.

Shipboard Computer System (SCS)

A system that collects, processes, displays and stores data from the navigational and scientific sensors on NOAA ships. NOAA developed this system to modernize and standardize data collection on its primary ocean and coastal research vessels. The number and type of sensors vary according to each ship and its particular mission, but they commonly include oceanographic, atmospheric, navigational, and fisheries data instruments. Selected data from the SCS are sent electronically to NOAA data centers where they are integrated in weather and sea-state forecasts, and archived for distribution to the public.

Thermosalinograph (TSG)

An automated sea surface measurement system making measurement on board the ship using a water intake. A conductivity cell and a thermistor cell provide conductivity and temperature measurements. Salinity is derived from conductivity and temperature.