Michael Bollinger | Marine Scientist
Projects
2022-Present
Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC)
Overview
Deepwater Horizon Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Restoration
This work is part of the NOAA Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) Series of publications that share the results of work conducted by the Deepwater Horizon MDBC restoration projects.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an unprecedented event. Approximately 3.2 million barrels of oil were released into the deep ocean over nearly three months. The plume of oil moved throughout the water column, formed surface slicks that cumulatively covered an area the size of Virginia, and washed oil onto at least 1,300 miles of shoreline habitats. More than 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of deep benthic habitat were injured by the oil spill, including areas surrounding the Deepwater Horizon wellhead and parts of the mesophotic reef complex located at the edge of the Mississippi–Alabama continental shelf.
Under the Oil Pollution Act, state and federal natural resource trustees conducted a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA). The Trustees assessed damages, quantifying the unprecedented injuries to natural resources and lost services. They also developed a programmatic restoration plan to restore injured resources and compensate the public for lost services.
In April 2016, a settlement was finalized that included up to $8.8 billion in funding for the Deepwater Horizon Trustees to restore the natural resource injuries caused by the oil spill as described in their programmatic restoration plan, Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group is responsible for restoring natural resources and their services within the Open Ocean Restoration Area that were injured by the oil spill. The Open Ocean Trustees include NOAA, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 2019, the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group committed more than $126 million to implement four restoration projects to address the injury to MDBC. The MDBC projects are: Mapping, Ground-Truthing, and Predictive Habitat Modeling; Habitat Assessment and Evaluation; Coral Propagation Technique Development; and Active Management and Protection. NOAA and the Department of the Interior are implementing the projects, in cooperation with a range of partners, over eight years.
Together, the projects take a phased approach to meet the challenges involved in restoring deep-sea habitats. Challenges to restoration include a limited scientific understanding of these communities, limited experience with restoration at the depths at which these communities occur, and remote locations that limit accessibility.
More information about Deepwater Horizon restoration and the MDBC restoration projects is available at: www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov.
My Role
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
My work as part NOAA Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) was apart of the Mapping, Ground truthing and Modeling (MGM) team. As a part of this team of this team, we employed REMUS AUV's with both Kraken MINSAS 120 Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS), and VOYIS RECON LS Imaging and Laser Line Scanner (LLS) payloads. I've worked alongside engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, inventors of the REMUS AUV, to successfully collect these data and learn the ins and outs of AUV operations.
Imagery Analysis
Along side AUV operations, I serve as a lead data analyst for the imagery that comes off the VOYIS sensor. I coordinate with AUV pilots to design missions to collect quality data, do the data management for the payload that collects terabytes of data on a single dive and develop tools to analyze and process the imagery. The team collects two main mission types, where the first is a photogrammetric development of an interesting area and the second is a "travelling salesman" where the AUV hits a number of randomly generated points for habitat model generation.
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Photogrammetry/Structure from Motion
I take in the photogrammetric datasets and process them to correct the navigation. I then use Agisoft Metashape to create 3D reconstructions of the seabed. These reconstructions can turn into micro bathymetric analyses, biological cover censuses and educational outreach tools.
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Substrate and Biologic Imagery Annotation
My work in the annotation realm pairs my skills in imagery analysis with my degree pathway of Biology. I work with developers from CVisionAI to fine tune an annotation engine, TATOR. I identify all types of mesophotic biological cover and substrate types to feed into predictive habitat models.