Innovative Environmental Sampling During the Summer of 2010 in the Western Gulf of Mexico R. L. Mullins (rmullins@ocean.tamu.edu) 1 , S. F. DiMarco 1 , and N. Guinasso 2 1 Texas A&M University Eller O&M Building MS 3146 College Station, TX 77840 USA 2 Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) Texas A&M University 833 Graham Road College Station, TX 77845 USA Abstract- The recent Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil tragedy is emphasizing the importance of collecting sound, real-time ocean observations through collaborations of academia, government, and industry. Ocean observing systems (OOS) provide continuous data for various environmental, oceanographic, and atmospheric parameters. Many systems, such as moorings and buoys, are in fixed locations providing excellent time series, but are limited in spatial coverage. To improve spatial and temporal resolution, a Sea Sciences Inc. Inc. Acrobat system was deployed in summer 2010 to aide in the cross-shelf sampling of the western GOM coastal waters as part of a multi- year National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to understand mechanisms controlling GOM hypoxia. Two weeklong surveys were conducted in the northern GOM, in which the Acrobat was deployed to determine the spatial and temporal extents of the Louisiana dead zone and the areal extent of the Texas hypoxic region. The data from this state-of-the-art cabled instrument combined with a real-time mooring, Galveston Instrument Garden for Environmental Monitoring (GIGEM OOS), deployed since 2009 provides valuable insight into the spatial and temporal scales of hypoxia on the Texas shelf, as well as emphasizes the need to developing management policies and future plans for surveying the northern GOM to accurately monitor processes responsible for hypoxia and to provide immediate data in the event of an unexpected environmental hazard. I. INTRODUCTION Real-time ocean observations are powerful tools for coastal managers responding to environmental coastal hazards. The British Petroleum (BP) oil spill on April 20, 2010 has reiterated that OOS are vital to providing the necessary data to managers in order to make informed and effective mitigation decisions as outlined by the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). Described by IOOS initiative, coastal OOS should fulfill seven societal goals, including an environmental design, service to variety of coastal users, and useful in natural hazard mitigation [1]. Recently, OOS efforts have shifted focus to the development of regional coastal systems for climate monitoring and hazard mitigation [2]. Additionally, trends in OOS are shifting from stationary platforms and devices and autonomous vehicles to a system combining both stationary and autonomous elements to build more complete and comprehensive solutions to monitoring coastal environments and hazards. Texas A&M University (TAMU) Department of Oceanography is leading initiatives in the Gulf of Mexico to revitalize currently existing systems by adding new instrumentation and survey techniques to assist hazard-monitoring efforts, such as unexpected oil spill disasters to seasonal impacts of yearly and persistent Louisiana dead zone. The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) Regional Office is supported within TAMU Department of Oceanography and serves as a data repository and management branch for collaborating among academic, private, and government OOS networks and disseminating data to aid with IOOS goals in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to GCOOS as an OOS resource, TAMU also includes the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) who operates the Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) built in 1995 to predict oil spill trajectories off the coast of Texas based on ocean currents in the northern Gulf of Mexico. TABS now assists with environmental water quality monitoring and climatology along the Louisiana-Texas (LATEX) coast and is the primary OOS in a major TAMU research initiative to study northern GOM hypoxia. Furthermore, TAMU and GERG researchers are continuing to enhance and increase OOS instrumentation to better improve temporal and spatial monitoring of western GOM hypoxia and to provide support for hazard monitoring. A. Hypoxia along the Texas Coast Hypoxia occurs globally and is a condition increasing in severity throughout the world’s ocean [3]. The frequency of hypoxic regions continues to increase and is often attributed to the input of anthropogenic nutrients in coastal waters and an influx of freshwater onto coastal shelves causing stratification preventing atmospheric-water column oxygen exchange [4]. Hypoxia refers U.S. Government work not protected by U.S. copyright