DAPHNE, Ala. — The Mobile-Tensaw Delta will undoubtedly see its share of impact from an oil slick threatening landfall along Alabama’s coastline, but environmental and ecological experts contend timing and Mother Nature will play significant roles on the long-term effects felt locally.

“Obviously, anybody along the coast is concerned about it, and people are only barely starting to realize that the impact is going to reach far beyond the natural resources world,” said Hank Burch, manager of the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center, of the expanding fallout from the April 20 oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana.

Ironically, Burch’s assessment of the situation was delivered Thursday as more than 300 area students converged on Five Rivers for the first day of a three-day environmental expo, designed to showcase the delta’s diverse ecological offerings and strategies for interacting with it safely and successfully.

“Part of me is looking for a silver lining in that I recognize the natural world has an amazing ability to bounce back after insults and regenerate,” Burch said, expressing hope that the agencies working to contain the oil spill’s spread and impact will be successful at mitigating as much damage as possible before it makes landfall.

Burch said his primary concerns as the slick advances farther north in the Gulf of Mexico is for the marsh habitats and oyster beds because it will have an immediate impact on the area.

“If you have a dramatic and potentially catastrophic event at the low end of the food chain, it will take a tremendous amount of time to recover,” Burch said.

One possibility that has been discussed informally has been flushing water downstream into Mobile Bay in hopes that it will disperse any oil that makes it that far and, at the very least, buy time.

While Burch said he is “all for throwing whatever they can at this thing,” the delta naturally absorbs pulses of water and spreads it out over the surrounding land, meaning flushing would actually accomplish nothing in Spanish Fort.

“I don’t see any reason to leave any possibility untried. If it has even the slightest possibility of helping, give it a shot. The delta is used to flooding. It will be fine,” he said.

Burch did say that while it might appear the “outdoors are under siege” in recent months, he doesn’t personally feel the oil slick is the result of any party inflicting intentional harm, and he has been impressed from the outset by the outpouring of support from the community at large—both locally and nationally—pitching in to assist in whatever volunteer capacity available.

“It shines a light on the human ability to really rally the troops and try to fix something that affects us all,” he said.

As for the farther-reaching impact on local wildlife, Burch said he agrees with the assessment of George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, that marsh habitats should be paid the strictest attention as the situation unfolds.

“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s really spooky,” Crozier said, indicating oyster beds are the most vulnerable at the moment.

And while people are “frantic” about the potential impact on coastal beaches, Crozier said those are honestly the easiest of the ecosystems to clean up.

“If it reaches the salt marshes and oyster reefs, then it’s going to be a wooly bear to clean up. If it goes into the estuaries of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, then we’re talking about the heart of productivity for the fisheries area,” he said.

With the start of  hurricane season barely one month away, however, Crozier said swift action is required.

“If they can’t stop it, and we wind up dealing with a flow of oil for three months, that carries us into hurricane season and all bets are off because it becomes a very significant ecological problem,” he said.

Alabama’s shrimping industry — while threatened — is not in the same direct peril because the oil must wash into the salt marshes and grassbeds to have the same devastating impact, but Crozier said the situation is still being monitored closely.

Should winds and currents shift, dealing the barrier island and Mobile Bay a more direct blow, however, Crozier said sea lab researchers have been collecting invaluable data for the past five years due to a now defunct plan by ConocoPhillips to construct a liquid natural gas terminal.

“When the deal ended, Gov. (Bob) Riley continued funding for the research because he didn’t want to be caught without any significant data when the next big thing happened, and I’d say this is definitely the next big thing,” Crozier said.

Specifically, the sea lab has been collecting three-dimensional data on eggs and larvae in valued fisheries as far as 35 miles off the coast of the barrier island. The research is significant, he said, because it provides independent fishery production data as opposed to measured catches alone that do not reflect accurately the volume of species available.

In addition, the sea lab also has an intricate buoy system in place about 12 to 15 miles offshore providing “several layers” of current velocities and vectors that could prove invaluable should the spreading oil slick begin sinking.

“It could give us some indication of where the oil is going and where it will accumulate,” Crozier said. “I don’t see (the oil) killing a lot of fish on our shelf, but the real problem could be if it sinks like a tar because it will wreak havoc on nets.”