Bruce Mate didn’t wait long. Within days of the April 20
Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, he was
on the phone with officials from the U.S. Minerals Management
Service. From 2001-2004, the agency had funded him to study the
Gulf’s endangered sperm whales. Now, the director of Oregon
State University’s Marine Mammal Institute had an idea: By
tracking the sperm whales again, he could provide useful data to
federal agencies and the well’s owner, British Petroleum, on the
impact of spilled oil on the marine ecosystem. Working through
an emergency-response process known as Natural Resource Damage
Assessment, Mate negotiated a contract with BP in which OSU
would own the data. BP and the National Marine Fisheries Service
would have access to determine damages for future settlements.
By the end of May, Mate and institute staff members Craig
Hayslip and Ladd Irvine were on the research ship Gordon Gunter
(owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration),
which had been quickly re-t