The HMBS Nassau is due to return to Prince George Wharf Saturday marking the end of a six-day scientific expedition to the Cay Sal Bank.

Experts from the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), Department of Marine Resources and the College of the Bahamas (COB) will return with sand and air samples to be tested for oil contamination from the Gulf of Mexico spill as well as added knowledge about the diversity and abundance of marine and terrestrial life there.

Although the trip organized by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was due to run until Tuesday, bad weather and evidence of poor planning meant the trip was cut short.

Samples collected from Cay Sal Cay, South Anguilla Cay and Double-Headed Shot in the Damas Cays by BNT assistant parks planner Lindy Knowles and ornithologist Predensa Moore and they will be tested for oil from the still gushing BP Deepwater Horizon upon their return to Nassau today.

The BNT staff also took note of plant and animal life on the three islands, while the marine science team headed by Department of Marine Resources assistant fisheries officer Jared Dillet recorded the diversity and abundance of life underwater.

It was the second mission to Cay Sal to collect samples from the islands and continue documentation of marine life on the westernmost Bahama islands lying between Florida and Cuba, about which very little is known.

Insufficient and outdated scientific data about the cays is now more than 20 years old and the National Oil Spill Contingency Committee is pushing to update information about the islands so government may be able to value the area and estimate the cost of the damage if the massive oil spill spreads to South Florida or Cuba and slicks containing thousands of tar balls drift to the Cay Sal Bank.

The mission was the second to Cay Sal since the threat of the oil spill became a reality, and the third in total as terrestrial data collection has also been done in Bimini.

But the mission was held back by poor planning as several members of the team were only alerted about the expedition hours before the HMBS Nassau departed five hours behind schedule on Monday night. And the four members of the marine science team who relied on Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) to provide scuba gear found out after they had set sail the equipment was not sufficient.

Rough seams and thunderstorms further delayed some of their work as two tropical depressions assaulted the northwest Bahamas with four to seven foot ocean swells, high winds and squalls, and the HMBS Nassau was forced to make a diversion to the route.

After a rough 20 hour ride from Nassau to Cay Sal Cay the scientists were able to make two trips to the island on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

They then set sail for Double-Headed Shot in the Damas Cays but the weather forced them to push on to South Anguilla Cay which they visited on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, before they returned to Double-Headed Shot on Thursday afternoon.

The HMBS Nassau then set sail for Bimini on Thursday night to meet the ZNS media request to return to Nassau by plane on Friday morning.

Scientists were taken to parts of Bimini to explore and document marine life on Friday before sailing back to Nassau.

Mr Dillet said the expedition was a success despite the drawbacks and hopes to return to Cay Sal Banks to continue the vital fieldwork.

He said: "It was a success in terms of we have furthered our knowledge of the area, but we aimed high.

"Because of the weather we didn't get to do everything, so I would like to do it again.

"It would be nice to be able to quantify all the biological aspects of this particular locality, but even that requires monitoring, because everything changes over time, and then you throw in the possibility of an oil spill and it can change all over again.

"The area is very sensitive to poaching and pollution and the fact that we don't know as much as we would like to it would be a shame to lose it before we know what we have in the first place."

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