[Coral-List] relatively urgent question regarding oil spill sampling

[Mark Vermeij]

Dear All

As some of you might now we're dealing with a relatively large oilspill
that hit some of Curacao's nicest reefs (. While most of teh oil floated
out to sea, got stuck in a mangrove bay or was swept on shore, we're
currently trying to figure out how the residual oil in the watercolumn will
affect the fertilization and survival of Acropora larvae that are expected
to spawn tonight. Since this is largely outside my field of expertise and I
have trouble finding exact/ recent information on how to sample "oil water"
I hoped you might be able to help me out. Please keep in mind that we have
no specialized equipment and rather have "glass bottles and ducttape" to
play with.

I have the following questions:

(1) What is the best way to sample water in which crude oil residue is
expected? Collecting in a glass jar looks sufficient, but is this true?
(2) How big do these samples have to be for later analyses (i.e., PAH's
etc)? Which analyses are commonly used to detect oil residues?
(3) I get the impression that these water samples can be stored at +4
degrees Celsius until analysis. Is this true?
(4) Can standard petri dishes be used to subject larvae to this water or
will the oil bind to the plastic of these dishes?

Any other pointers and suggestions are extremely welcome!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Tropical regards

Mark



-- 
__________________________________
Dr. M.J.A. Vermeij
Science Director Carmabi Foundation
Piscaderabaai z/n
Curaçao
Web: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/



Assistant professor
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)
University of Amsterdam
Science Park 700
1098 XH Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Web: http://www.science.uva.nl/ibed/home.cfm

Phone: +5999-5103067
Email: m.vermeij at carmabi.org
Skype: markvermeij