New Orleans

Made the cut to Unified Area Command (UAC) in New Orleans, located at 1250 Poydras in downtown New Orleans. The Command Center formally known as Houma now occupies four floors of the downtown high-rise. So much for the bayou.

Fresh off the plane from Houston, I marked my first day in the UAC with a night out on Frenchmen Street, a narrow enclave of bars, restaurants, tattoo parlors, and ethic food, music, and folk. This is where the locals hang and thumb their nose at Bourbon St. I and some friends sampled great food, music, and various forms and quantities of alcohol on foot at such places as Cafe Negril, Blue Nile, Spotted Cat, and Snug Harbor.


Cafe Negril


Spotted Cat

The focus of this area and the highlight of our night was definitely the live music at every venue. The streets were just getting livened up at 2:30 am when we caught a cab back to our new home, the JW Marriott. At the Marriott I have an exquisite view of the city from the 21st floor. There is a pool and workout room on the 8th floor. In my spare time.



The UAC still feeds us and does our laundry, but it's a different feel than slow-paced, polite little Houma. Not better or worse, just different. Proximity to the city of New Orleans is also very different, as is the weather, which has evolved from a sweltering hot blanket to a cool, breezy evening.

Just throwin' my peeps a bone on the haps here. More soon about the work I'm doing.

The Armada sails

These are four of the six ships in our research armada... all six departed yesterday and last night. I have had about 4 hours of sleep each night this week, trying to finalize the cruise plans, staffing, and equipment. I definitely had a lot of help, but it was definitely a lot of work.



Each ship has containers on deck that serve as lab space, working areas, and storage. They are climate controlled, of course. Continental Shelf Associates (CSA) has been responsible for getting the winches, containers, and large equipment on the ship. I love these guys.



Each of the ships has a slightly different mission... some are equipped with ROVs and full-depth instruments that will collect data from the surface down to the seafloor as deep as 1500 m (5000 ft). Some are near-surface vessels that will do more stations and focus on the euphotic zone (upper 100 m of the water column). All are tasked with collecting data to identify the extent and concentration of oil in the marine environment. Some ships will work close to the wellhead (within 1.5 km), while some will be sampling far-field (as much as 180 km from the wellhead).



This is one of the ROVs. It is deployed on a tether in its little "garage," then when it gets to the seafloor it leaves the box and goes off to collect samples. The water bottles it carries are tripped by the arm on the ROV. Super cool. There is one whole container on deck that is dedicated to the care and feeding of the ROV... the equipment is shown below. It's kept at a lovely 68 degrees in that container to protect the equipment.





The ROV garage also has instruments attached to it on the top and corners. The instruments collect temperature, salinity, depth, and dissolved oxygen data, and they can detect oil in the water column using fluorescence.



This is a water sampling "rosette" and Bill, one of my two supervisors. Love this guy too.



The ships had staggered departure times, and one by one we watched them leave the Houma Ship Yard.



This is "my boat," the Bunny... it was bittersweet watching her leave without me on it. At least she got to leave... even if I have to stay back at the ranch while she is out cruising, measuring, and being a work horse.



As I write this (midnight central time), all of the ships are currently on stations in the Gulf after a full day of collecting data. Only one minor mishap... have to do an "at-sea transfer" of one crew member who is sea sick. A runner boat will leave Saturday night to do the exchange. Other than that, everyone is healthy and doing well, and nothing has broken yet!

You've probably all heard that BP has a new "cap" that will collect 80,000 barrels of oil a day directly from the gushing well. Fingers are crossed...

Shakedown Cruise

Between the government Trustees dragging their feet through endless conference calls to hold up our research plans and the impending tropical storm in the Gulf, we sent only two ships to sea two nights ago... the Ridley (big red ship doing acoustics) and the Rachel Bordelon, a cousin of the Bunny Bordelon. In fact, check out the Bordelon Marine site... all the ships are named after kin. Click on "vessels" and explore the different types. There are lots!

It's 6 am Central time, and I'm at my desk in our new "trailer" outside the BP building. We still park in the massive lot (which they are paving today), go through security, eat in the cafe, and have our laundry done, but we are in a separate structure now. It's not bad. Yesterday they put a "Mom's Sno Balls" truck next to our trailer, a Lousiana favorite. I haven't paid for anything here in a long time. My credit card is wondering where I've been. The hours are definitely long, but I really enjoy the work and am feeling more comfortable and knowledgable each day.

Another VP of the company called me yesterday and wanted to know about my work in Hawaii, because Entrix is trying to have a larger presence there too. He wants me to write up a description of the various projects I worked on out there. So it looks like I'll probably have a long and promising career with Entrix! I can't believe how much I've learned since that first call on Memorial Day night. I'm loving it.

I'm headed to the boat yard today for a meeting with some technical people about new oceanographic approaches to our problems. I'm sure there are no camera restrictions at the boat yard, so I'll finally have some eye candy to post. Hope all is well at the lake or wherever you are.

Launching the Armada

Since those first long but easy days of reading and getting acclimated, I have been swept with maximum velocity into the vortex of designing and planning the offshore marine assessment work for the NRDA (damage assessment from the spill). I thought I would be working in the nearshore group, but I ended up being given a really great opportunity to work with an oceanographer on this project. We have worked hard, and I know our proposals are excellent. The project leaders on the marine assessment have both heaped the responsibilities and challenges on me, and I have really enjoyed it, despite the very, very long work days.

We just presented our final proposals today in a briefing with BP, who approved them all. If NOAA approves the study plans, we will be launching 6 research cruises next week. Two ships will do acoustic mapping of the sub-surface oil plumes. The red ship at the top of this post is an acoustic surveying vessel, the R/V Ridley Thomas, about 200' long.

Two other ships will do oceanographic measurements and water sampling far offshore, only looking at the upper 100 m (300 feet) (the euphotic zone where most of the critters live). Another two ships will work between the wellhead and 20 miles out in every direction. I will be the chief scientist on one of those boats, the Bunny Bordelon...



The objective of all the study plans is to document where the oil is, and where it isn't. We aren't working on the coastline or looking at the surface slick... we will be looking for underwater plumes from the surface down to full ocean depths, about 1,600 m (>5,2000 ft)!!

The "Bunny" ship I will be chief sci on is about 150' long and has full ocean depth instruments to measure conductivity, temperature, salinity, depth, and dissolved oxygen (CTD/DO), fluorescence (which detects oil to concentrations as low as 4 parts per billion), plus an ROV and rosette sampler that can collect water samples at pre-programmed depths. The ROV also has video and digital stills to capture images of oil in the water column and turn the images into 3-D holograms so the droplet size can be measured. How trippy.

This oceanographer and I literally put a plan together for two cruises sometime Wednesday night last week, and since then everything has been so rapid and hectic. The program managers liked our stuff so much that it became incorporated into the main Gulf-wide, long-term study plan. It escalated. This is a cool schematic of how the acoustic surveying vessel (the Ridley) will work with the water sampling and profiling ship (the Bunny, which I will be on)...



Now I've been working to stock all 6 boats with the crew and sampling gear they need. The oceanographer I'm working with coordinates the boats and the oceanographic instruments. There are many, many people working on this and we all had lots of help. We won't be cleaning up oil, but we will be trying to better understand where it is in the marine environment, and what it's impact is. We'll also be looking at water toxicity (by doing ship-board experiments with rotifers using a portable kit called "rototox"). Water samples will be collected at 8 depths from the surface to the seafloor, which will be sent to labs for chemical analysis like concentrations of dispersants and hydrocarbons.


"Rototox" kit


A rotifer... may have to give its life for science...

The dispersant has really helped break up the oil in the water column... but you then have to worry about the downstream effects of the dispersant! Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I was supposed to go home at the end of my 2 week rotation, which would have been this weekend. But since the cruises leave next week and I have to lead one of them, they don't want me to rotate out. I think what will happen is I'll have two days off where they cover my hotel and rental car, but I can just relax or go to New Orleans or something. They call it "Rest In Place." Then Wed. of next week, we'll launch the armada of research vessels, and I'll be at sea for 10-12 days.

Pictures will be forthcoming when I'm finally in the field. Take care all.

Down on the bayou?

A lot can happen in a year... my last post here was in April 2009 when I was kayaking in beautiful Sidney, BC. If you had told me then that I would end up in Houma, Louisiana, because of an oil spill, I would've cocked one eyebrow and had my doubts. But I was pushed by both an environmental disaster and by the knowledge that I could be doing much more than I had been doing. Don't get me wrong, teaching was great and served a valuable purpose at a crucial time in my life (and 23 physics labs were really fun), but... I've been looking for jobs since spring break. I can't say this will be permanent, but it's worth a try. I won't have to live in Louisiana, thankfully! :) The humidity here is about 200%. But the people are nice.



I reported to the "command center" in Houma today... it took me 30 minutes to find parking and clear security at this massive facility. I was expecting a few trailers... perhaps I should have googled it before my arrival.

My first day (of a 14-day "deployment") consisted of about 12 hours of finding my way around, meeting people, getting a "desk," acquiring a chair, and meeting people from not only my new consulting company (Entrix) but from all over the U.S. Toxicologists, wildlife biologists, oceanographers, bird people, mammal people, plankton people... And reading. Reading. Reading.

The building has a full-service dining room (all meals are free), so you basically never have to leave and never have to spend money. There are about 300 people on site. Entrix makes up about 20% of that. The NOAA folks got the nicest offices, and the BP people are in the upper floors. All of us contractors and field people are on the massive first floor, which has a very high ceiling and really takes up three floors, enclosed entirely by long sets of tall, massive glass doors. There's no view, but you get the impression you are outside. I can't imagine what it costs in A/C bills.

All that HAZWOPER and OSHA training I rushed through last week to become employable at Entrix actually came in handy as I read various reports and proposals related to assessing the impacts of the oil spill on the marine environment. I will participate in two big projects... nearshore sampling in small boats and offshore studies in large ships. Some oceanography, some mapping, some modeling of toxin dispersal. All would be fascinating if it wasn't so damned disastrous. After a long day and several discussions, my supervisor (who runs the marine program) told me that I would probably be the lead scientist on one or two of these efforts.

I'll spend 2 more days at the command center, then spent 3 days working on small boats and traveling with the nearshore assessment team. When I'm in the field, most likely I will be confined to the heavily impacted areas of Louisiana, but it's possible I could end up in the Florida panhandle or even the Keys. No one is looking that far ahead... there's enough to do right here. I'm struck by how chaotic it isn't. Perhaps because it is day 48, the chaos and panic has subsided into everyone having a task, or multiple tasks, and faced with the enormity and dismay of why we are here. There is no drama... just a lot of smart, committed people wanting to work instead of blame. I particularly like all of the Entrix folks so far... they seem like a good group of exactly that kind of people... smart and committed. Hopefully I'll fit right in.

Spring Kayaking

It's springtime in the Pacific Northwest, when sunshine and longer days dry out the moss between our toes and the cobwebs in our brains. I finally got a chance to test out my new sea kayaking skills on a nice, sunny, calm weekend in late April. I have been taking classes at a local pool, learning to roll the kayak, escape from it, and rescue others. Oh, and paddle. Very important to know how to paddle.



We set out to circumnavigate Coal and Portland Islands off of Sidney, including one night of kayak camping. Here I am fooling with the GPS... yes, even in nature I am a nerdy gear-head.


Me... having a nature moment despite the fuel dock.


Right outside of Sidney Harbor are a bunch of shallow rock reefs that the harbor seals love! This one burped.


Harlequin ducks out on a date... they know it's spring too...


Saw 4 eagles nests on Portland Island, which is entirely a marine park


Sharing the waterways with fowl and ferry


Ducks and boats


Heron, goose, and Fucus (say that 10 times fast)


Tidal currents and bull kelp


Free parking on Portland Island


Ah, the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where the sky is vast and full of... big, dark, ominous clouds. I did not take this picture, but I vaguely remember the view...

Unfortunately this is where the storm hits and the story gets sloppy. It was actually great fun to paddle through wind and small waves (ferry swell is great!). But we were eventually beaten by the weather and had to set up camp in the wind and rain. I would have taken photos of my tent but I couldn't see it. After a wet night we spent 4 hours getting back to Sidney (against the wind but not the tide, thankfully!), and within minutes of landing.... the sun came out...

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 20th Anniversary

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh reef (a maritime hazard named by Captain James Cook) and spilled 11 million gallons of oil in one of the most pristine and productive ecosystems in the world... Prince William Sound.

The spill set a wave of environmental disasters, policies, and research in motion... of which my little group here in British Columbia has played a small part during the last few years. I flew most of Prince William Sound in the summer of 2007 as part of our ShoreZone Coastal Habitat Mapping Program. This work was funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, and NOAA.

During these busy, brimming weeks leading up to the 20th anniversary on March 24, we wrapped up the completed data set (5,885 kilometers of shoreline data and imagery!!) and prepared materials such as posters, flyers, videos, and press releases related to the official release of the ShoreZone data for Prince William Sound. We wrapped this enormous project up 2 months early in order to coordinate it with the anniversary events in Anchorage and Cordova. We have been interviewed three times! The two stories from our local papers are very different, but we made the front page in both cases, which is great! What better marketing tool can you ask for?

These are some links and images about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 2009 if you are interested. Below that are links to our stuff, video and local stories.


Oil spill around Knight Island, southwest Prince William Sound.

Watch the "Black Wave" Documentary Trailer (5 minutes)

View a slide show with captions from the Anchorage Daily News, March 1989

Embedded below is a 3-minute video sample of our imagery from Port Valdez in May 2007. The audio will come across as two simultaneous channels... the geologist (me) in the left speaker and the biologist (Mary) in the right. If you have head phones you may be able to understand us better listening to one at a time. Warning... I sound ridiculous... this is an exercise in humiliation! I was astounded by the human alteration of the shoreline in Valdez.



You can see it says "YouTube" -- yes, we did this for YouTube! Just for fun and for outreach. If you are a you-tuber, you can search by "ShoreZone" and see all of the clips we have posted recently.

We were interviewed by the Peninsula News Review... there is an online version of our story "Mapping the Exxon tragedy," which also has video excerpts of yours truly (remember the camera adds 10 lbs... not sure how MANY cameras were on me!), as well as of John and Kalen (my right hand man). For the video, just press the little arrow to play when the black box comes up on that page. Unfortunately you don't get to see Sean on the cover of the paper version... he was pretty stoked!

We were also interviewed by the Victoria Times Columnist, and there is an online version of our story "Map of a marine disaster." In the paper version of this one, John made the front pager! Talk about great marketing! You never know what newspaper people are going to like or end up using... I'm just glad we made the news. Must have been a slow week...

Skiing in Utah

What better Valentine than meeting up with Amy and the kids in Deer Valley, Utah, for a little skiing, a little sledding, and a lot of fun? Aunt JoJo jumped on a plane (thanks to frequent flyer miles) and landed in the deepest powder ever! The photo above is of Jordanelle reservoir, frozen on the left side of the dam, river on the right... a gorgeous view from the top of the brand-new gondola! This was my first double-blue run ever!


Jodi and Mac at the ski-in, ski-out deck at the condo... nice!!


Jodi and G-Money on the gondola

I am pretty convinced that the best way to have kids is to have best friends (and family) with kids! They are fantastic! I don't mind wiping their noses and playing games, but when the whining starts, I get to move on!


Kids playing Orlando-opoly



Kids running around with underwear on their heads





Oh yes, and kids S K I I N G ! !


Little G-Money skiing like a pro... he is so fast! All the kids did the double-blue Jordanelle too! Amazing!


Trying to catch up with the kids... impossible... unless they stop...


...which they do, thankfully, for ice cream.


Amy and I with Gianni, a ski instructor from Argentina.


Amy and I on the slopes! What a fantastic, fun trip! Thank you!! Next up, Whistler in March...!

White Christmas in Seattle

The recent paucity of snow has kept the ski hills closed, so I have been doing nightly snow dances to bring on the weather. My calls were answered with back-to-back blizzards that immobilized both Victoria and Seattle. I took a ferry and drove down to Seattle on Dec. 21 in one of these blizzards!


Ken's house... no one remembers this much snow in Seattle... ever!



It was well worth the conditions to see the Seahawks beat the Jets 13-3 in coach Mike Holmgren's last game, the snowiest game in history! Also unfortunately the worst season in Seahawks history... sigh...


Ken and me at the game, in a blizzard! We look miserable, don't we?!


The massive crowd braved conditions and lingered long after the end of the game to pelt the Jets with snowballs and to honor Mike Holmgren.



Christmas Eve...

I was digging my Subie out when a Fed Ex guy came hiking up the snowy driveway on foot to deliver me a package from Amazon (thanks mom!). I was on my way down the driveway to get to my appointment at Best Buy to have my new satellite radio installed (thanks Ken!), when I found the Fed Ex truck had proceeded to get stuck at the base of Ken's driveway...


Shovels and chains and several neighbors "helping out"... all fruitless...


This is Ken trying to pull the Fed Ex truck out with his truck... also fruitless. I am watching this scene from my car, where I am stuck while waiting for this calamity to be over so I can get the satellite radio installed (cuz it's all about me!!). They ended up calling a tow truck to pluck him out! He was in the driveway for hours... but he was still in a good mood and proceeded with his deliveries. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Cast Away"... maybe I should invest in Fed Ex.

Christmas Day...


Ken's new acoustic guitar from me... comes with a few private lessons. This photo was taken with my new 10 mexapixel digital camera from Ken! And don't forget the satellite radio (installed the next day). :)

We spent Christmas afternoon at Ken's mom's (Elsie's) house, where a dozen of the Stevenson clan (plus me!) gathered. These fireplace shots are missing Ken's sister Kelli and her husband and kids, but you can see they are quite the clan.








Did I say clan or clown? Ken's brother Brett lifting weights... the Christmas loot


Elsie opens gifts with Nancy, Chloe, Olivia, and Katie


Katie trying to steal Chloe's cool new green scarf


Sisters Chloe and Olivia compare gifts


Ken snaps this pic of me opening a gift from Elsie


As usual, my favorite gift is the card


Steve and kids opening gifts


Nancy, Paige, and me in the kitchen, "helping" Elsie


Ken and me taking a break from the action

Thanks for a great Christmas! Much love... Jodi