2017 EXCELLENCE IN PARTNERING AWARD
The The Gulf of Mexico Shipwreck Corrosion, Hydrocarbon Exposure, Microbiology, and Archaeology Project (GOM-SCHEMA) team, led by Dr. Leila J. Hamdan of the University of Southern Mississippi and Melanie Damour of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, investigated the impact of oil exposure on historic shipwrecks from the microscopic to the macro scale during a four-year period and the subsequent recovery of these sensitive deepwater habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. During this project, the team discovered that a sunken WWII German U-boat and a 19th century wooden-hulled sailing vessel located within 10 miles of the spill’s origin had been exposed to the fallout plume of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and that such exposure could have negative impacts on the long-term preservation of these non-renewable, historically significant cultural resources and their resident biological communities.
