Science journalist Mark Schrope is aboard the research vessel Pelican, which is spending the week studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Check back to The Great Beyond for daily mission updates.

I’m on my way to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill zone, some 220 kilometres southeast of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, aboard the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium’s 35-metre research vessel Pelican, part of the US research fleet.

The seven scientists aboard, from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, a NOAA-funded cooperative effort based at the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi, had originally been scheduled to study and map formations where methane seeps from the seafloor, and historically significant shipwrecks with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After the disaster they decided to put that work on hold so they could study the spill.

This is the ship’s second trip to the area. Last week they took water and sediment samples at various sites in and around the spill zone to begin answering questions about how the oil is behaving in the water, such as how much is sinking and how fast. Then on Saturday night the team came in to pick up an array of new equipment that would allow them to expand their efforts, a port call that allowed me to join expedition at the last minute.

But not before completing my online hazardous waste first responder operations level training – an enthralling eight-hour experience that is a US Coast Guard requirement for all those entering the zone.

The area around the oil well, which continues to spew hundreds of thousands of litres of oil each day, is a parking lot for work ships, and there are numerous smaller boats skimming oil and spreading booms to contain the spill. But as far as we know, this is the only research ship working in the region.

The mission, evolving on the fly, is a daunting one for the team. Most of the scientists are doing work outside their normal bounds, and they’re preparing to deploy equipment that in some cases they’ve never seen before. They’ll be doing their best to fill a growing list of requests from colleagues for samples and data, all aimed at better understanding the spill and what it’s long-term impacts might be. Besides instruments for measuring oil, they picked up a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that will allow them to take video below the oil patches.

We left the dock at 10 pm on Sunday, and should reach the first research site today. We’ll be starting near shore and working our way toward and around ground zero. For the first few days of this 7-day mission the scientists will be working shifts around the clock. After that, the equipment they can use may be limited by the arrival of bad weather – and two-metre waves.

Posted on behalf of Mark Schrope.