WEBVTT 00:03.169 --> 00:06.373 align:left position:27.5% line:89% size:62.5% April 20th, 2010. 00:06.473 --> 00:13.446 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% Forty-one miles off the Louisiana coast, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by BP 00:13.546 --> 00:18.685 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% suffered a devastating blowout and exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. 00:18.785 --> 00:23.757 align:left position:15% line:89% size:75% It was a very chaotic time 00:23.857 --> 00:27.360 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% 11 people lost their lives, many others were injured. 00:27.460 --> 00:29.562 align:left position:25% line:89% size:65% It was catastrophic. 00:29.662 --> 00:34.868 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% Deepwater was probably the most complex and diverse oil spill in the history of oil spills. 00:34.968 --> 00:37.137 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% People were very prepared for another Exxon Valdez... 00:37.237 --> 00:42.342 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% They weren't prepared for this. 00:42.442 --> 00:47.580 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% While the Coast Guard searched for survivors from the air, response teams worked to contain 00:47.680 --> 00:49.949 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% the fire at the surface. 00:50.050 --> 00:56.256 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% But in the deep sea, nearly a mile beneath the rig, the largest offshore oil spill on 00:56.356 --> 01:00.760 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% record was just getting started. 01:00.860 --> 01:04.564 align:left position:70% line:83% size:20% The first time I saw a video of the discharging wellhead it literally took my breath away. 01:04.664 --> 01:10.637 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% I realized how truly bad this was and how difficult it was going to be to stop the disaster 01:10.737 --> 01:19.512 align:left position:25% line:89% size:65% that was unfolding. 01:19.612 --> 01:28.088 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% Over the next 87 days, BP s Macondo wellhead discharged roughly 134 million gallons of 01:28.188 --> 01:31.558 align:left position:15% line:89% size:75% oil into the Gulf of Mexico. 01:31.658 --> 01:38.798 align:left position:72.5% line:83% size:17.5% The unprecedented spill affected nearly 68,000 square miles of ocean surface and damaged 01:38.898 --> 01:44.737 align:left position:75% line:89% size:15% 1,300 miles of shoreline across five states. 01:44.838 --> 01:51.811 align:left position:72.5% line:83% size:17.5% Despite months of clean-up efforts, the spill became one of the largest environmental catastrophes 01:51.911 --> 01:53.780 align:left position:25% line:89% size:65% in American history. 01:53.880 --> 01:59.352 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% I knew pretty early on that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. 01:59.452 --> 02:07.427 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% It was one of the most intense periods of my scientific life. 02:07.527 --> 02:13.800 align:left position:72.5% line:83% size:17.5% As a result of the developing spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, or GoMRI, was 02:13.900 --> 02:20.340 align:left position:72.5% line:83% size:17.5% created with a $500-million-dollar grant from BP for peer-reviewed, independent research 02:20.440 --> 02:24.911 align:left position:67.5% line:89% size:22.5% on the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. 02:25.011 --> 02:31.017 align:left position:75% line:83% size:15% The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative just transformed our knowledge of the Gulf of Mexico. 02:31.117 --> 02:36.489 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% We started with a clean whiteboard to try to understand what we thought would be important 02:36.589 --> 02:38.224 align:left position:17.5% line:89% size:72.5% 10 years from that point. 02:38.324 --> 02:42.395 align:left position:72.5% line:83% size:17.5% So what would we have to know to have a better response to it? 02:42.495 --> 02:44.898 align:left position:87.5% line:89% size:2.5% There's a lot going on here. Wow. 02:44.998 --> 02:52.005 align:left position:77.5% line:83% size:12.5% What was the extent of Deepwater Horizon s damage to ecosystems deep in the Gulf of Mexico? 02:52.105 --> 02:56.105 align:left position:75% line:89% size:15% And are we prepared for the next big spill?