US Govt to "quarantine" scientific data collected on Gulf

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Scientist fears government muzzle on Deepwater Horizon data

As a professor in the oceanography department at Texas A&M, Steven DiMarco has spent years studying the waters threatened by the Deepwater Horizon. "I can't tell you how many times I've thrown up on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico," he says.

DiMarco may soon have some more he can't tell you -- because the federal government might not let him. In the very early morning hours of June 14, DiMarco and 10 scientists will head out from the Texas coast on the RV Manta dive boat -- a 77-foot catamaran owned by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that's where the problem comes in.

DiMarco's team wants to take as many samples and collect as much information as they can about conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, including oxygen levels in the water. DiMarco specializes in hypoxia, meaning the science of what happens when lifeforms haven't got enough oxygen. Whenever there's oil in the water, naturally occurring bacteria swoop in to eat that oil -- and in the process deprive the rest of the ecosystem of oxygen. Scientists worry that rapidly blooming, overfed bacteria could turn sections of the Gulf of Mexico into dead zones, completely anoxic regions where there's very, very little for living things to breathe.

Whatever the group from Texas A&M finds, you might not hear about for an awfully long time. "I'm essentially being told that the data I'm collecting on my hypoxia cruise may or may not be subject to quarantine," DiMarco says. "Which means that we will not be able to publish it, pending the liability litigation. Oh, yeah, 20 years from now, we may be able to publish it."

The professor checked in with us on his way to a conference of marine scientists in Baton Rouge, led by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. DiMarco says he intends to bring up the government embargo on research, since sharing data and reviewing other researchers' work is the lifeblood of scientific inquiry.

Without a clear guarantee that scientists can freely share what they're learning, DiMarco faces the prospect of going to sea, learning the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill, and being absolutely muzzled. In theory, he and the others could venture out and discover patches of the Gulf that have been emptied of oxygen -- and not be able to tell anyone. "That's the nightmare scenario," he says. You want to be able to get out there and report back immediately."