Development of Offshore Ecological Resources at Risk Response Information for Area Contingency Plans

The evaluation and modification of oil spill response plans after an emergency is critical to advance spill preparedness. Prior to 2010, Area Contingency Plans (ACPs) focused on the nearshore response to oil spills. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Incident Specific Preparedness Review conducted on the incident in 2011 determined that ACPs did not contain offshore Worst Case Discharge scenarios, that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) should participate in Area Committees to conduct offshore response planning, and that ACPs were inadequate regarding offshore Environmentally Sensitive Areas. In 2018, BSEE launched a project to develop offshore response information for government contingency plans. As part of this project, we created offshore Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) atlases and narrative profiles of taxa present with applicable Best Management Practices for each taxon for the Gulf of Mexico, two areas around Alaska (Cook Inlet/Gulf of Alaska and the Arctic), and off southern California. The offshore ESI atlases are built on the NOAA national standard format and database structure, and they present spatial and temporal distribution of ecological resources at risk in waters from Submerged Land Act boundaries to the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Spatial and temporal distribution data for offshore ecological resources were collected through extensive correspondence and data sharing with federal and academic resource experts for each of the following elements: birds, herpetofauna, marine mammals, fish, invertebrates, benthic (and floating) resources. The data sources used for many of these taxa are the results of leading-edge models derived from extensive survey datasets that have only recently become available. All datasets used were compiled and interpreted to be presented in the response-relevant ESI data standard. Narrative profiles including distribution maps and taxon-specific spill response information were created as reference materials for taxa mapped in the ESI atlases.