Ocean Research Environmental Studies Program

Accomplishments

"The assessment found that the program is very effective in providing timely and peer reviewed environmental research to decision makers.”

— Office of Management and Budget Finding

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“The BOEMRE has been a significant contributor to research on the effects of sound. It has funded, or required industry to fund, most of the research designed to identify and determine how to avoid or mitigate the possible adverse effects of oil and gas exploration on bowhead whales and other Arctic marine mammals.”

— U.S. Marine Mammal Commission’s 2007 Report to Congress
(pages 17-18) on Marine Mammals and Noise:            
A Sound Approach to Research and Management         

The Department of the Interior's Cooperative Conservation Award program recognizes conservation achievements resulting from the cooperation and participation of individual landowners, citizen groups, private sectors, nongovernmental organizations, and Federal, State, local, and/or tribal governments.

2009 Cooperative Conservation Awards

Flower Garden Banks Long-Term Monitoring Program

The Flower Garden Banks Long-Term Monitoring program is recognized for its long-standing commitment to the protection of the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico, the northernmost coral reef communities in the Western Hemisphere. The program is one of the longest, continuous, coral reef monitoring programs in the world. Monitoring and restrictions on nearby oil and gas exploration since the early 1970’s, first by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement(BOEMRE) and later in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have ensured the health and resiliency of the reefs.

Battle of the Atlantic Expedition

In a July 2008 multi-partner mission, baseline data were collected in several sites that included underwater wreckage of German U-boats, British naval vessels, and U.S. Merchant Marine ships lost during the war efforts in an are known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” off the North Carolina coast. This data, gathered through scientific mapping and photo and video documentation, will allow for future monitoring of both cultural and environmental changes of these “war graves.” The program seeks to educate the local diving community on the fragile nature of these unique historic resources and their significance in telling the full story of World War II on the Atlantic coastline. The expedition was brought together under the leadership of NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Project partners included the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, the Minerals Management Service, East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime Studies, the University of North Carolina’s Coastal Studies Institute; the University of North Carolina’s Department of Cultural Resources, and the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

2008 Cooperative Conservation Award

BOEMRE and University of Alaska Coastal Marine Institute

The award recognizes the partnership between the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) Coastal Marine Institute (CMI) and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service. Founded 15 years ago, CMI is managed through the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The institute works directly with the BOEMRE and the State of Alaska to study marine issues associated with the development of oil, gas and minerals in Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf. The CMI research has involved 15 years of partnering with 49 different organizations on 63 projects and provided about 117 years of graduate student support.

2007 Cooperative Conservation Award

Investigations of Chemosynthetic Communities on the Lower Continental Slope of the Gulf of Mexico

Under the theme of exploration, understanding, and protection, we have a groundbreaking research project to investigate deep-sea communities discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in water depths between 3,400 and 10,000 feet. This is a joint project, again between BOEMRE and NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration, initiated under the auspices of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). The first year of field sampling was completed this past June (2006) using the deep diving submersible Alvin. Although the emphasis of this study is on chemosynthetic communities, a secondary objective is to study other types of hard bottoms observed; in particular, deep-sea corals. A state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, will be used in 2007 during the second year of field sampling. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a closely integrated set of studies for BOEMRE to address additional information needs.

2006 Cooperative Conservation Award

Excellence in Partnering Award 2007

The Archaeological and Biological Analysis of WW II Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico: A Pilot Study of the Artificial Reef Effect in Deepwater:

An initial collaboration between two Federal Agencies, BOEMRE and NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration, grew to include three private companies, two nonprofit organizations, and four universities under the auspices of the NOPP.

The joint partnership conducted a biological and archaeological investigation of six casualties of Hitler’s U-boat war in the Gulf of Mexico. The archaeological objective of the study is to ground-truth, document, positively identify, and assess the National Register status of six ships sunk during World War II, including the German submarine U-166. The biological component includes an understanding of how artificial reefs function on the continental shelf especially where hard bottom habitat is naturally lacking (most of the Gulf of Mexico).

The deep wrecks have significant ramifications on deepwater oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world. The results of the biological research have provided information on the viability of deepwater shipwrecks and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as artificial reefs. These studies will further our understanding of deepwater ecosystems worldwide. Archaeologically, the study (Deep Gulf Shipwrecks of World War II: Partners for Science and History) is one of the most comprehensive deepwater shipwreck investigations ever conducted.

2004 DOI Cooperative Conservation Awards

In managing the oil and gas resources of the OCS, the BOEMRE seeks "to ensure that all activities on the OCS are conducted with appropriate environmental protection and impact mitigation". Since the 1970’s, one environmental focus has been the potential for impact of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals. Marine mammals are adapted to use sound in the ocean for communication, navigation, prey identification and location, and sensing of the environment. These animals have evolved in an ocean that is filled with natural sounds. Humans began to introduce additional sound sources with the advent of the industrial age in the mid-19th century. As these sounds increase, the potential for impacting marine mammals increases as well. Of concern are the potentials for negative behavioral and physiological responses to human-generated sound, at both the individual and population levels. As oil and gas activities moved into ever deeper water in the Gulf of Mexico, the BOEMRE recognized the increased potential for industry impacts to deepwater species of cetaceans. One species of particular concern was the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), which is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The objectives of this study are to establish the normal behavior of sperm whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico; characterize sperm whale habitat use in the northern Gulf of Mexico; and determine possible changes in the behavior of sperm whales when subjected to manmade noise, particularly from seismic airgun arrays used for offshore petroleum exploration and geological monitoring.