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3.1 



TEXAS-LOUISIANA MARINE ECOSYSTEM STUDY 



Dr. R. Eugene Turner 



Department of Marine Sciences 



Louisiana State University 



Baton Rouge, LA 70803 



Dr. Gilbert Rowe 



Department of Oceanography 



Texas A&M University 



College Station, TX 77843 



3.1.1 Introduction 



The tasks of this workshop were to "identify the important elements needed in a marine ecosystems study of the 

 Texas/Louisiana (TEXLA) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)." The workshop began with a general meeting 

 reviewing goals and deadlines and ended with writing assignments to be presented the next day. Minerals 

 Management Service (MMS) personnel were present during all discussions, which involved 10-20 persons at any 

 one time. Participants were allowed two weeks to submit materials to the co-chairs before this draft was 

 prepared jointly. The draft was mailed to non-MMS personnel for review and revised by the co-chairs before 

 submission in this form. 



Purpose of the Workshop 



The guidelines for the workshop were adopted and generally understood to be: 



• identify study elements, discuss appropriate methodological approaches, 

 establish sequences and priorities, and 



justify the anticipated study findings in terms of the mission needs of MMS. 



We began the process of developing technical advice with the assumptions that: 



• the scientific ideas put forward will be judged on their overall value to the study goals without initial 

 consideration of funding limitation, relevance to other programs, or the personal research interests of 

 the participants, 



due to the accepted expertise of the participants it would not be necessary to dwell on the merits of 

 methodology, rather than establishing the priority of the study elements which should receive the greatest 

 consideration. 



Geographical Extent of the Study Area 



The general study should include three areas: the Mississippi River plume, the continental shelf break where 

 Loop eddies interact with the shelf waters, and the continental shelf proper from the Mississippi River delta to 

 Brownsville, Texas. The river plume is important as a major driving force for continental shelf variability in 

 terms of freshwater and new nitrogen, the location of the most intense metabolic rates in the water column, and 

 where freshwater-seawater interactions are most conveniently studied. The Loop eddies are an important focus 

 for interactions of shelf and deep Gulf of Mexico waters, especially with regards to upwelled water. The 

 continental shelf is the location of the majority of OCS oil/gas recovery efforts, and nationally-important 

 commercial fishing resource. While complete shelf coverage is recommended, highest priority should be assigned 

 to the northern Gulf of Mexico in the area of the plume and at the shelf break and then be evenly distributed 

 southward down the Texas shelf. 



