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Platforms, Birds, and Birdmen of the Gulf

Meet Bob Russell, speaker for the AOS Winter 2000 meeting

Each spring, somewhere on the order of a billion birds migrate northward across the Gulf of Mexico, en route to breeding habitats from their wintering quarters in the tropics. Following a short breeding season in the north, most of these birds return southward across the Gulf, their numbers then augmented by offspring produced over the summer. Although these massive trans-Gulf migrations (TGMs) represent one of the great wildlife events of the world, basic aspects of TGM (such as species composition, flight routes, orientation tactics, and responses to weather) remain incompletely known.  In fact, until the 1950s, the very idea that birds routinely and "intentionally" migrate across the Gulf was treated with skepticism by some scientists.

The most ambitious study of TGM to date began in spring 1998. This "Migration Over the Gulf Project" (MOGP) employs field biologists stationed continuously on offshore oil and gas production platforms during migration periods, and is being conducted through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the LSU Coastal Marine Institute, and with extensive support from seven major petroleum companies (BP Amoco, Exxon, Mobil, Newfield, Phillips, Shell, Texaco).  During the first three field seasons, coverage was limited to five platforms off the Louisiana coast.  However, beginning in fall 1999, coverage has expanded to 10 platforms stretching from south Texas to Alabama, providing a more circum-Gulf picture of TGM and yielding several dramatic discoveries.

Bob Russell received his Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Irvine in 1994, and worked with the National Research Council and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle before moving to Louisiana to lead the MOGP.   In this program, Russell will 1) provide an introduction to the platforms and their role in studying trans-Gulf migration; 2) present a pictorial tour of platform habitats and the migrants that use them; 3) review important findings of the study to date (with a special emphasis on some of the new insights from the expansion to Alabama waters); and 4) share some of the idiosyncrasies of platform life -- including how the study has resulted in the addition of a new noun into the vernacular of offshore culture: a "birdman."