Chat with Aquatic Biologist Dr. West Tunnell.

May 9, 2001

Read our chat with Dr. Wes Tunnell, Director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. In addition to specializing in water quality investigations, Dr. Longley has done work with water pollution and endangered species.

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Submitted by Xochitl Oseguera 5/10/01

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Meta Description: 4Empowerment presents Aquatic Biologist Dr. West Tunnell. Description: Read our chat with Dr. Wes Tunnell, Director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. In addition to specializing in water quality investigations, Dr. Longley has done work with water pollution and endangered species.

Cyberways: Welcome! Have questions about what the macroinvertebrates you are finding in your kicknet tell you about the health of your watershed? Want to know about more about coral reefs or diving in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond? Wonder what effect oil spills and other ocean pollution really have on the environment? Now you can chat with aquatic biologist and Director of Texas A&M's Center for Coastal Studies, Dr. Wes Tunnell, to shed some light on these and other questions.

Dr. Wes Tunnell: It's great to be able to visit with students across Texas and to particularly share with them the mysteries, the adventure, and the wonders of the Gulf of Mexico Texas coastline.

Echo: How can you tell if the ocean environment is healthy as opposed to polluted?

Dr. Wes Tunnell: The best way is to determine what kind of life is in the body of water that is in question -- to go in with some kind of sampling device, like a seine or another kind of net to determine the marine life in the area. Another way is to sample the water and test the water for its quality to determine if there are any kind of pollutants that are in the water. These kinds of tests are often more difficult to perform. Some can be performed in the field with special equipment, but others must be performed in the laboratory with more sophisticated equipment.

Skooter: How much impact have oil spills had on ocean life?

Dr. Wes Tunnell: Oil spills have had varied impact on ocean life, particularly on the immediate area of the spill. The most damaging kinds of oil spills are those that we say are chronic. In other words, they continue to happen in an area. The large ones are the ones we normally hear about forever, like a tanker going aground or a large pipeline rupturing. So, most of the damage is done in the localized area, but it depends upon the size of the oil spill. In warm water areas natural conditions help to rejuvenate an area and to clean up the oil spill naturally after crews move in and clean up the area. However, in cold water areas, where microbes are not as common and can't function as well, spilled oil in Arctic kinds of environments or cold water environments may last for years. What is the best reference book for a teacher who specializes in chemistry to use for keying out macroinvertebrates? If you are from Texas there is a particular one that is for the Texas coast. It is actually published by Texas A&M University in Kingsville. It's "Keys to the Invertebrates of the Texas Coast" by Dr. Allan Chaney. And then another one that I highly recommend that is more in a book format and has a lot more information is entitled "Shore Ecology of the Gulf of Mexico" by Britton and Morton, and it's a University of Texas Press book. It has lots of nice pictures in it and lots of good text.

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