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On the Scene

From the deck of the research vessel Endeavor, WHOI chemist Ben Van Mooy (right) and others survey the scene near the burning Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in June, 2010. Van Mooy was a member of a team of WHOI scientists who went to the Gulf to study aspects of the oil spill. He used a classic analytical technique for measuring oxygen levels in the water to determine whether microbes were eating oil in the surface slick and in the deep plume of hydrocarbons. One of his key findings was that oxygen levels in the plume had not been lowered enough by microbial activity to endanger fish and other marine life.

(Photo by Dan Torres, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)