Evidence not even accessible to researchers that gathered samples
USF says government tried to squelch their oil plume findings, St. Petersburg Times, August 10, 2010:
[University of South Florida's] first NOAA-sponsored voyage to take samples after Deepwater Horizon, the one that turned up evidence of the undersea plumes, was designed to gather evidence for use in an eventual court case against BP...
USF turned its samples over to NOAA, expecting to get either a shared analysis or the samples themselves back.... [USF marine science dean William] Hogarth said, they've received neither.
NOAA's top oil spill scientist... said, because NOAA has collected so many samples over the past three months, when it comes to the samples from USF's trip in May, "I'm not sure where they are."
Please read the full article here: http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/usf-says-government-tried-to-squelch-their-oil-plume-findings/1114225
They're not sure where the oil is either....
Oh, wait, it EVAPORATED.
I forgot.
Isn't information that may be used in legal cases supposed to be kept under some sort of "chain of custody?". Would think even the comment-"not sure where the evidence to be used..is"..could cause the validity of the data to be questioned. I hope someone at USF or the other university kept samples back! In the future, backup data should be kept by the collector until the receiving organization provides a data transaction/receipt.