In April 1986 a major oil spill from a ruptured storage tank at a local refinery just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal polluted an area of coral reefs, mangrove forests, and grassbeds along the Caribbean coast of the Republic of Panama. The area affected included a biological reserve of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) where baseline biological and environmental data had been collected for the previous 15 years. Shortly after the spill, a grant to study the effects of the spill was received from the Minerals Management Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Data was then collected from May of 1986 to October of 1991 by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute under Minerals Management Service contracts 14-12-0001-30355 and 14-12-0001-30393. These data are filed under NODC Accession #9400033. Results of the study were published as a technical report of the MMS (Keller and Jackson, 1993.) The project was divided into 8 subprojects to study the chemistry of the oil and 7 different environments affected by the spill, which included seagrass, coral, and mangrove communities. The study continued in part for an additional year under another grant, but that data is not included here, nor is data collected before the spill or data collected by the STRI ESP program.
To study the effects of the Bahia Las Minas oil spill on various environments along the coast of Panama, including its effects on seagrass, coral, and mangrove communities.
Scientists in charge of sub-projects: Subtidal seagrass communities - Mike Marshall; Mangrove forests - Norman Duke; Mangrove fringe and epibiota of mangrove roots & Gastropods of a tropical intertidal reef flat - Stephen Garrity and Sally Levings; Reef flat sessile biota, infauna, and sea urchins - John Cubit; Subtidal Reef Corals - Hector Guzman; Reef Flat Stomatopods - Roy Caldwall and Rick Steger. List of documentation and data files under 'Additional Info About Dataset'; Data files and description of data organization and conventions prepared by Karl Kaufmann, Marine ESP Data Manager, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Other printed matter submitted: A copy of the final reports - Keller and Jackson, 1993. Volume I - Executive summary. 129 pp. Volume II - Technical Report Part 1. pp 1-533. Volume II - Technical Report Part 2. pp 535-1917. Reef flat stomatopods - Xerox of field notebook for February, 1991 - 56 pp. Hydrocarbon analyses from Bermuda Biological Station - The following material consists of tables not included or only partially included in the final report: Seagrass Sediments '86 - '88 (2 pages) Mangrove Sediments (19 pages) Coral Reef Sediments (5 pages) Mangrove Organisms (56 pages) Resource Description: NODC Accession Number 9400033
ground condition
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was utilized as an aid to complete upper level species classifications FOR THIS METADATA RECORD ONLY by the NODC to aid in the development of search engines. NO ORIGINAL DATA WAS ALTERED at the NODC. Original data may contain some organism groups or species that are not listed in this metadata record. ITIS taxonomy utilized for classifications is current as of the original metadata development date.Taxonomic metadata is produced to aid data searches and is not designed to serve as a definitive taxonomic guide. These metadata may be edited by NOAA/NODC at a future date as required.
See: "Keller, B. D. and J.B.C.Jackson, eds. 1993. Long-term assessment of the oil spill at Bahia Las Minas, Panama, synthesis report, volume II: technical report. OCS Study MMS 93-0048. U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, New Orleans, La. 1017 pp." This final report contains the documentation of the collection methods for the files submitted.
Specimes identified to genus and species as applicable
Dataset credit required. NOAA and NODC would appreciate recognition as the resource from which these data were obtained in any publications and/or other representations of these data.
Centre for Marine Studies, The University of Queensland
phone/fax/e-mail; contact through website at: www.botany.uq.edu.au/research/marine/main.htm
Required. Please credit Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute under Minerals Management Service contracts 14-12-0001-30355 and 14-12-0001-30393. Scientists in charge of sub-projects: Subtidal seagrass communities - Mike Marshall; Mangrove forests - Norman Duke; Mangrove fringe and epibiota of mangrove roots & Gastropods of a tropical intertidal reef flat - Stephen Garrity and Sally Levings; Reef flat sessile biota, infauna, and sea urchins - John Cubit; Subtidal Reef Corals - Hector Guzman; Reef Flat Stomatopods - Roy Caldwall and Rick Steger.
See descriptions within data subsets and documentation in "Long-term assessment of the oil spill at Bahia Las Minas, Panama, 1993, synthesis report, volume II: technical report." and other documentation described in the Supplementary Information field of this metadata record.
1100 Jefferson Drive, Suite 3123
P.O. Box 37012 Quad Suite 3123, 705
Phone/Fax/Letter to Washington, D.C. Local address, or contact through STRI website at: http://www.stri.org/english/site_tools/contact_us/index.php
1315 East-West Highway, SSMC3, 4th Floor
Phone/e-mail/FAX/voice mail message
NOAA makes no warranty regarding these data, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NODC cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data, nor as a result of the failure of these data to function on a particular system.
Data and data documentation held in both ASCII and comma-delimited ASCII files. Additional documentation as MS-Word files
Note: Data users are advised to review the file STRI_OS.DOC and additional data documention files contained in this data set for complete details of the data file structure. The project was divided into 8 subprojects to study the chemistry of the oil and 7 different environments affected by the spill. Each sub-project was headed by a scientist-in-charge and produced 4 to 16 different sets of data each. Each sub-project has a three letter code, called the study ID (SID) which forms the first three letters of each file pertaining to it. Each subproject has up to 16 different sets of data, and each of these sets is assigned a single letter which is used for the fourth letter in each file name. Most of the files have the characters '_M' for the next two letters, indicating that it is the main data file for that data set. Files with three initial letters and ending with "_S" contain the species list for that subproject. Data documentation files: STRI_OS.DOC General Documentation (this document) GRS.DOC Subtidal Seagrass Communities MGF.DOC Mangrove Forests MGR.DOC Mangrove Fringe and Epibiota of Mangrove Roots RFL.DOC Reef Flat Sessile Biota, Algal-turf Infauna, and Sea Urchins SNA.DOC Reef flat gastropods SRE.DOC Subtidal reef corals STO.DOC Reef flat stomatopods Data files: Approximately 62 total ASCII and comma-delimited ASCII files are contained in this dataset. Data files are formatted as comma delimited ASCII files as follows: Each record ends with a CR/LF Each field is delimited with a comma Text fields have double quotes (") at the beginning and end of each field. Numbers have no quotes, decimals are included where needed. Blank text fields have only two double quotes - "" - delimited with commas. Blank numeric fields have only adjacent comma delimiters Logical fields are formatted as single letters with T for TRUE and F for false Date fields are formatted as 8 integer numbers - yyyymmdd.
These data may be directly downloaded via the NODC's "Ocean Archive System". The system can be accessed through the NODC Home Page at www.nodc.noaa.gov or directly at: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/search/prod/. See the "ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS" field of this metadata record for specific steps for direct download. Contact NODC via e-mail/phone/letter for custom order.
Contact the NODC User Services Group via phone/FAX/E-mail: nodc.services@noaa.gov
1315 East-West Highway, E/OC1, SSMC3, 4th Floor
E-mail, phone, FAX, mail
