Best Practices for Mission Applications

GIS Supports Seafood Safety in Oil Spill Response

—Nathan Beck, US Food and Drug Administration

"FDA could not have made the decisions it made [regarding seafood safety] without the help of GIS."
- Peter Koufopoulos, lead technical specialist for the FDA Incident Management Group.

GIS has become an integral part of the FDA preparation and response to any incident or emergency situation involving FDA regulated products. During the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, GIS offered a method of maintaining situational awareness. Collecting and combining information from government and industry sources, the FDA Incident Management Group was able to effectively monitor State and Federal fisheries closures relative to the oil location reports and trajectory forecasts. During the fisheries reopening stage, GIS allowed FDA seafood experts to efficiently analyze State water reopening proposals and track seafood sampling locations. Throughout the incident, GIS presented a common data source to track FDA activities, record measurements, and produce official map graphics for letters, reports and briefings.