Ships and a World War II-era German U-boat sunk in the Gulf of Mexico continue to make news decades after their discoveries by oil and gas companies conducting seafloor surveys.
Currently, archeologists and others are studying whether oil spilled by the 2010 Macondo well blowout affected organisms living on shipwrecks within miles of the well that was operated by BP PLC.
Researchers will examine 6-10 wrecks to assess their chemical, physical, and biological conditions. Improving technology and growing industry awareness of archaeology continues to yield additional information about the wrecks.
In July, archaeologists working for C&C Technologies Inc. of Lafayette, La., used a remotely operated vehicle to reexamine the U-166, a German submarine that torpedoed the Robert E. Lee passenger freighter in 1942. The U-166 itself later was sunk.
The U-166 and Robert E. Lee are within the spill area and are likely to have been exposed to spilled hydrocarbons and chemical dispersants used in the cleanup.
The US Bureau of Offshore Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement commissioned C&C, an underwater survey and mapping company, along with others to conduct the post-Macondo study.
The study also includes researchers from George Mason University, the University of Mississippi, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the University of Montana, the Naval Research Laboratory, the PAST Foundation, National Oceanographic Partnership Program, and Droycon Bioconcepts Inc.
Growing collaboration
Archaeologists and offshore operators have come to collaborate more closely in the last 15 years, Daniel J. Warren, C&C senior marine archaeologist, noted in a paper prepared for presentation at the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference.
"The industry's interest and awareness of the importance of these shipwrecks to our maritime heritage has grown," Warren wrote. "As a result, today when a wreck is discovered on a survey, it is not uncommon that additional survey work is carried out over the site—something unlikely to occur just over a decade ago."
Since 1998, the number of archaeologists working for the offshore industry in the gulf has roughly doubled to about 20 people today, Warren said. Starting in 2001, commercial autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have been used in the gulf for deepwater geophysical surveys.
Contractors working for Shell discovered the Robert E. Lee wreck during a 1986 seabed survey. A U-boat wreck was found during a seafloor survey for Shell and BP as they sought a route for the Okeanos natural gas pipeline.
In 2001, C&C archaeologists were using an AUV when they collected information that helped identify the U-boat wreck as being the U-166. BP and Shell subsequently hired an ROV operated by Oceaneering Inc. of Houston to take video of the U-166 and Robert E. Lee.
Wrecks in the gulf range from wood sailing ships used in the 19th century to steel vessels used during World War II.
Multiyear, multidisciplinary studies by government, academic, and private researchers previously have studied what impact humans have on the deepwater environment and the artificial-reef effect of manmade structures, including scuttled platforms (OGJ, Aug. 20, 2001, p. 19).
Numerous federal agencies, including the former Minerals Management Service (now BOEM), sanctioned the Deepwater Program: Natural and Artificial Hard Bottom Habitats with Emphasis on Coral Communities: Reefs, Rigs, and Wrecks. Those programs typically are called the Lophelia and Lophelia II projects in reference to cold-water coral.
Separately, crews aboard Robert Ballard's exploration vessel Nautilus recently took updated photographs and video of the Robert E. Lee and the U-166.
Researchers and the offshore industry continue working to understand how the wrecks and their biological communities change over time.