Audrey Matura Shepherd’s OCEANA vessel along BP oil spill

Oceana Belize is known for its opposition to offshore drilling in Belize. Its Vice President, Audrey Matura Shepherd, has joined a voyage that is tracking the British Petroleum oil spill throughout the gulf.  The Oceana team is aboard the vessel called the Latitude.  Matura Shepherd spoke to News Five via phone with an update on Oceana’s voyage that will also assess the damage done to the environment and animals.

Via Phone: Audrey Matura Shepherd, VP OCEANA

“Things are going very well. We just had to wait until our underwater vehicle came and cleared Customs. We checked between yesterday and today, and we have all our equipment on board now; we are testing everything and we have fortunately four very good divers. They will be diving, taking samples and tagging the turtles and sharks. Also on board we have Ms. Alumenda Fernandez. She is a Spanish model but she works out of the New York area and she is very much interested in marine issues so she’s on board being photographed to highlight the issues of what oil exploration can mean in terms of marine wildlife. And she also wants to raise the issue so that people become more involved in the discussion. Amongst our divers, we have two from Spain and two from Chile. Amongst the ones from Chile, these are gentlemen, especially Eduardo who specializes in underwater photography and videography and his function here is to take documentary pictures. The other two divers from Spain, they are also scientists. One of them is a scientist and they will be taking the samples of the different waters that we have in different areas so that we can check how far the   dispersants floated and how far oil can be located in this area.”

Fort Lauderdale Mayor John P. “Jack” Seiler and Spanish model Almudena Fernandez were among the nearly eighty guests onboard the Oceana Latitude Saturday night for the launch of Oceana’s two-month Gulf of Mexico research expedition.