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Natural Resource Damage Assessment of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Scientists from NOAA’s Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program are coordinating with federal and state co-trustees and the responsible parties to collect a variety of data on both unoiled and oiled natural resources that are critical in the conduct of a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA).

The purpose of a NRDA is to determine the appropriate type and amount of restoration needed to compensate the public for injuries to or lost use of their natural resources from oil spills, hazardous waste sites, and ship groundings.

Data collected in the Gulf and across the five states will help determine what natural resources have been injured and what human uses have been lost. Once the injuries and losses are known, trustees will work with the public to identify and select restoration projects to compensate the public by restoring, rehabilitating, replacing, or acquiring the equivalent of the natural resources lost or injured by the oil spill.

On April 30, 2010, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources requested Dr. Posadas to represent DMR at the NOAA Technical Working Group on Human Use Impacts of the MS Canyon 252 (Deepwater Horizon) oil spill.

The HUI-TWG has started daily benchmark monitoring of human uses of the Gulf states' marine resources since Thursday, May 7, 2010. Updates about the different TWGs are posted at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill website.