dr. lubchenko. so there we are. let me turn to done boesch and say, ok, it's been a year since the oil spifment how do things look? when we saw the videos that brought back all the memories of how horrible everything looked a year ago, what's the state of the gulf right now from the position of an ocean nothing grapher? >> well, nature is a wonderful thing and it treated the oil in the organic substrait, a lot of it grew and devoured much of that oil. so as dr. lubchenko said earlier, it's no longer there. a number of issues that we need to resolve about linger effects and she also mentioned there's damage assessment, to very carefully quantify the impact. and there are lots of ongoing studies to see the degree to which those impacts are long term and are going to quickly recover. but i think in general scientists think that the gulf handled this remarkably well. specifically, though, with respect to why everyone's here tonight to enjoy is gulf seafood. as a scientist when this spill was happening and all the concer

dr. jane lubchenko. now, jane is a very distinguished marine biologist.he has been a member of our advisory board here at the museum for a number of years and then she was appointed administrator of noaa a few years ago. it's a great pleasure to have you here, jane. and if you would like to give a few welcomed remarks, please join us. [applause] >> good evening, everyone. it's great to see you here. welcome to the smithsonian program event here in baird auditorium. tonight's program as cristian has indicated is designed to tantalize your mind as well as titillate your taste buds so i hope you will have good things both at the program and afterwards. this intellectual appetizer that we're beginning with will offer you a look at the gulf one year later. and i'm very anxious to hear the views of the members of the panel. by way of opening remarks and a keynote address to get us going, let me begin by sharing, teeing off what cristian has mentioned on information that bears on tonight's issue as well as our program. i referred to the strong partnership betwee