July 6, 2010
"It's like a city out there," said freelance cook/stew Melissa Smith, about the traffic she saw while working on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico in early June.
"At ground zero, there is a sheen everywhere. It was a heartbreaking sight." Smith fed scientists and crew for 10 days on the F.G. Walton Smith, a 96-foot catamaran from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
"You really can't understand how bad it is until you see it," Smith said of the oil spill from the oil rig Deepwater Horizon that exploded April 20. "I am so glad I didn't see any affected wildlife."
Many of the crew did not go outside too often because of the level of toxicity, she said. She described the air quality as causing a situation similar to build-up that made coal miners sick before they realized it was exposure to toxins.
"You can definitely smell it, oh God yeah, you can smell it," she said.
One man aboard wore a respirator when he went out on deck. Floating oil blackened the inflatable tender and would not come off the porous rubber. And the research vessel did not use its watermaker because of potential contamination.
Problems with one of the engines forced the crew to cancel a scheduled stop in the Dry Tortugas, she said.
"I can't say it was due to oil, but we did have oil in the intake," Smith said. "Boats are not made for navigating through chemicals in the water."
A research scientist with expertise in Gulf of Mexico habitats was aboard to research if the oil was only on the surface of the water.
"While on our boat, she discovered that the oil was also below the surface, through the deep water samples we took," Smith said. "She was on 'Good Morning America', the BBC interviewed her and media was calling on the sat phone."
Ten reporters also were on the boat and two passengers were from the National Geographic Society along with scientists from Florida who were studying the potential flow of oil in the eddies and currents.
"It was really eye opening to work on a commercial vessel after all my years in yachting," Smith said. "We work hard in yachting, but on a commercial boat, they really work hard in a greasy, dirty, difficult setting. I appreciate and respect what these guys on these research boats are doing."
Smith said she has worked on yachts that try to recycle and are aware of waste generated onboard, but the research vessel had those attempts beat.
"This was the first boat I've worked on that had recycling for everything: office paper, plastics, glass, food waste, everything, right down to a Chapstick tube."
To read about the damage oil can do to a yacht's systems, click here.
About the Author
