Gulf oil spill is a 'technological disaster'

LaDon Swann has his eye on the big picture. "This is not only an environmental disaster, it is an economic and social disaster as well," said Swann of the British Petroleum oil spill that is befouling Gulf beaches and polluting its water. "Commercial fishermen are not working, so processors can't get product. The truckers and all the way up the chain are affected."

Swann is an Auburn University professor and director of the AU Marine Fish Laboratory located at the Gulf Coast Research and Extension Center in Fairhope.

His main job, however, is as the director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, a group of nine universities and labs in two states.

The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is a marine research, extension, outreach and education program, something like the much better-known Alabama Cooperative Extension Service.

While ACES is funded by the USDA and the state, the Sea Grant Consortium gets its funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as NOAA, as well as from the states of Mississippi and Alabama.

Extension, outreach and education specialists work in coastal communities and provide training, education, expert advice and assistance on safe and sustainable seafood, coastal ecosystems and hazard-resilient and sustainable communities. Sea Grant-funded scientists conduct research to help find solutions to these types of coastal issues.

To put it more succinctly, the Sea Grant Consortium is involved in research on just about every aspect of living and doing business along the coast, where fishing and tourism are big business.

That way of life is threatened, Swann said.

"The oil spill is like a slow-moving storm," he said. "Depending on the wind it is washing in on the beaches and marshes, then the wind shifts and we get a little reprieve. But there is so much oil out there we are going to have it for months to come."

This is a technological disaster rather than a natural disaster, he said, and in technological disasters people act differently. In natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, they tend to band together and provide assistance.

Research suggests that technological disasters instead spawn "corrosive communities," plagued by social disruption

"Some people are employed by BP, and others are left out. You see haves and have nots," Swann said. "Over the long term we could see increased alcoholism, suicide and divorce rates. The longer this goes on, the more likely that will happen."

He said some communities might never recover. Employers at processing plants are taking other jobs, and small businesspeople don't have the cash to carry themselves through.

"As far as the environmental impact, they're doing a really good job of cleaning up the beaches," Swann said. "The beaches are the easiest part to clean up, because there is no vegetation. You just vacuum or shovel up the oil."

That doesn't prevent swimming advisories and people canceling their reservations, however. Swan said Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island and Orange Beach had been hit hard, with the oil spill already costing them about $1 billion.

And as the oil gets into remote marshes, it is virtually impossible to clean, Swann said.

"A lot of people are banding together to try to help communities and the environment, but there's only so much that can be done," he said. "The opportunities to help people may be greater than the opportunities to help the environment, because the marshes are very resilient."

Swann said that the effect on the work of AU researchers at the Gulf pales in comparison to the larger issues, but that AU research might lead to opportunities to keep people employed on the water.

"Shellfish aquaculture will be a very viable option for people who historically catch oysters off the public reefs," he said. "They can make the transition to farming oysters, so it's essential we continue that research."