The Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s annual Discovery Day is fast approaching. On Saturday, April 9, campus will be extra busy with thousands of people learning about our coastal environment. Touch tanks, arts and crafts, games and more will be offered.

Also on the menu for the day is a screening of Dispatches from the Gulf.

Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Marilyn and Hal Weiner produced Dispatches from the Gulf which follows a team of international scientists as they investigate the oil spill's effect on the Gulf of Mexico. Academy Award winner Matt Damon narrates the hour-long documentary.

Dr. Will Patterson, Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Associate Professor of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, offers his knowledge of the changing fish population since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

"There's lots of different ways to think about impact of oil," Dr. Patterson explains. "One thing we've been looking at is growth rates and we've seen in years after the spill that for a few of these species for which we have quite a bit of information that they're smaller at age than they were before the oil spill."

The documentary will be screened inside Shelby Auditorium on the hour beginning at 10:30 a.m. with the last showing starting at 12:30 p.m.

For more details on Discovery Day, visit www.disl.org/estuarium/discoveryday.