Expedition Itinerary

At present six coastal areas are planned for examination.

Itinerary: Expedition I (15-18 June 2010)

15 June – Fly Corpus Christi to Veracruz with National Geographic (Joel Bourne, writer)

16 June – Examine/snorkel Enmedio Reef off Anton Lizardo, Veracruz (two Ixtoc tar mats were relocated) with Alberto Vazquez

17 June – Interview fishermen at Anton Lizardo (8 fishermen interviewed) with Alberto Vazquez

18 June – Fly Veracruz to Corpus Christi (return trip)

Itinerary: Expedition II (5-8 July 2010)

4 July – Corpus Christi to Merida, Yucatan

5 July – Examine limestone rocky shorelines and interview fishermen of Champoton and Campeche, Campeche

6 July – Examine mangrove shoreline, including mangrove oysters, and interview fishermen of Isla Arenas, Campeche

7 July – Examine mangrove shoreline and sea grass beds, and interview fishermen at Celestun, Yucatan

8 July – Merida, visit CINVESTAV-IPN (deliver Ixtoc samples for analysis)

12 July – Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve collaborative meeting, Quintana Roo

15 July – Return to Corpus Christi

Ixtoc I Expedition 30 Years Later

An expedition sponsored by the

Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

On 3 June 1979 the Ixtoc I exploratory well in the Bay of Campeche blew out. It was finally capped on 23 March 1980 after two relief wells were able to plug the well. An estimated 140 million gallons of oil were released into the southern Gulf of Mexico by the blowout and numerous environments from around the southern Gulf all the way to South Texas were impacted. The Ixtoc I well was located on the continental shelf in about 170 feet of water and about 50 miles north of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico.

The British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon platform blew out on 20 April 2010 about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta off Louisiana in the Mississippi Canyon in about 5000 feet of water. After various attempts to cap the well, nothing has succeeded to date (as of 28 June 2010), so it continues to release oil and gas at the well head where the blow out preventer failed. Approximately 60-100 million gallons have been released to date, and oil is impacting the salt marshes of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana, and beaches of Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida.

The Ixtoc I spill remains as the largest peacetime oil spill in history, and since it occurs in the same body of water, the Gulf of Mexico, as the BP Deepwater Horizon, many comparisons have been made [The BP spill will likely surpass the Ixtoc spill in total volume during July 2010]. Repeated questions include "what did we learn from the Ixtoc spill that is applicable to the current spill? What happened to the oil, the environment, the fisheries, and the people/communities? Are there any residues of the Ixtoc oil remaining?”

Since there were no comprehensive or long-term studies conducted after the Ixtoc blow out and oil spill, the Harte Research Institute (HRI) for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi plans a series of expeditions to address these questions. HRI will revisit selected sites where Ixtoc oil/tar has been observed along the shores of the southern Gulf of Mexico over the past three decades by Dr. Wes Tunnell, Associate Director of HRI. Since the Ixtoc spill, Dr. Tunnell has made repeated trips for research and education with his classes to various shoreline habitats (12 total) around the southern Gulf from La Pesca, Tamaulipas, to Celestun, Yucatan. During July and August of 1980, he specifically traveled the southern Gulf shorelines looking for Ixtoc oil on sandy beaches, rocky seashores, and coral reefs. In addition, he was able to revisit study sites on the coral reefs of Veracruz annually after the spill with his Coral Reef Ecology class field trips to Enmedio Reef until the mid 1990s. On HRI sponsored expeditions in 2002, during a Sustainable Seas Expedition to the Veracruz reefs, he was able to relocate the Ixtoc tar mats tracked through time.

Today, 30 years after his first expedition to the southern Gulf this second series of expeditions, scheduled during June and July 2010, will reveal the status of oil and tar on sandy beaches, rocky shores, and coral reefs, in addition to perhaps mangrove habitats north of Campeche. We will also interview fishermen and coastal communities in the areas impacted to see how their lives and jobs were changed or altered, and how long the effects lasted.