about 90% over the region covered by the Landsat Imagery, and no useful data 

 could be extracted. On December 23, 1976, cloud cover was about 70 to 80%. 

 There appeared to be several breaks in the cloud cover; however, analysis of 

 the imagery by D. Bowker, LRC, NASA, using digital and density slicing 

 techniques failed to identify oil on the ocean surface. On January 9, 1977, 

 cloud cover was about 20%; again, however, analysis of the imagery failed to 

 show oil on the ocean surface. 



EPA sponsored three overflights of the wreck site on December 18, 19, 

 and 22. These flights were conducted by New England Airphoto Associates, 

 Inc., of Shrewsberry, Massachusetts, in a Cessna TU 206. Approximately 300 

 9- X 9-inch color photographs were taken with a vertical aerial camera. Very 

 few of the photographs on the first flight are usable because of the low 

 ceiling, but 96 photographs were taken on December 19, and 199 on December 

 22, The last two flight tracks were nearly coincident in time and space with 

 the NASA coverage (Figures 2-1 and VII-1) , so both large format color and 

 color IR photographs are available for analysis. The EPA photography can be 

 obtained from EPA, P.O. Box 15027, Las Vegas, Nevada 89114. 



A NOAA C-130 conducted two oil mapping flights on January 12 and 13, 

 1977. These flights were requested by the On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) , 

 Captain L. Hein, through personnel of the Marine Ecoystems Analysis (MESA) 

 Program Office because USCG aircraft (HU-16E) were unable to reach the dis- 

 tant area where the oil was thought to be. Both of these flights were funded 

 by the OCS and carried NOAA and USCG personnel to conduct the observations. 

 Both flights located oil southeast of the Avgo Merchant at distances of more 

 than 100 miles (see maps IV-19 and IV-20, Appendix IV). 



Aero-Marine Surveys, Inc. (AMSI) of New London, Connecticut, is the 

 Raytheon Company's subcontractor for Lagrangian tracer studies of the Bureau 

 of Land Management's (BLM) New England Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Physical 

 Oceanography study. EG&G is also involved in these physical oceanography 

 studies under a separate contract from BLM. The main objective of the Lag- 

 rangian investigations is to define the regional, local and fine-grain sur- 

 face currents of Georges Bank in the context of the transport of oils re- 

 leased in the course of oil production. From a broader view, there is the 

 hope that new knowledge on oil transport will emerge. 



The two companies' involvement with the Argo Mevahant spill began short- 

 ly after the vessel ran aground, and by the week's end representatives had 

 arrived in Hyannis, Massachusetts. EG&G made contact with appropriate NOAA 

 and USCG personnel and accompanied members of the SOR Team on reconnaissance 

 flights in chartered aircraft. AMSI positioned a twin-engine marine survey 

 airplane in Hyannis on Wednesday, December 22, after having received authori- 

 zation from BLM through Raytheon to mount a limited field survey effort in 

 cooperation with EG&G. 



Efforts were made to augment the USCG oil mapping work with additional 

 coverage by AMSI. Operational tasks included visual observations, dropping 

 of drift cards, and temperature measurements. The most important measure- 

 ments may be realized in widely distributed vertical photographs obtained by 

 AMSI portraying the oil "pancakes" in detail. This might permit a correlation 



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