Gulf Oil Spill Six Months Later

The crude has stopped gushing and coastlines are largely clear of the thick goo that washed ashore for months, but the impact of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history will no doubt linger for years.

Six months after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion, the environment and economy of the entire northern Gulf of Mexico region remain in a state of uncertainty, with overturned livelihoods, out-of-work fishermen, reluctant tourists, widespread emotional anguish and untold damage to the sea and its shores.
It could be years before the spill's true effects are understood. The science is largely scattered about what the roughly 200 million gallons of oil that spewed from BP PLC's blown-out well—some 170 million gallons of which actually spilled into the Gulf—will ultimately mean for the animals and plant life that inhabit one of the world's most diverse bodies of water.
"There are some things that are starting to reveal themselves already," said Steve Murawski, chief fisheries scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "But it's going to take a while for us to gain some perspective."
Murawski predicted scientists will be studying the region for years, as they have been doing since 1989's much smaller Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
"This will be with us for decades for sure," he said.
The doomsday scenarios feared during the worst period of the gushing well did not play themselves out, as much of the oil is believed to have evaporated or been dispersed, marshes have sprung back to life and fewer dead animals than feared have been found.
But that good news does not mask concerns that the country might be turning its attention away prematurely, considering the very real damage that has been done.
"I can honestly say, I guess, I'm very pessimistic about it," said Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association, whose oyster beds are all dead or dying. "We don't know where we're at. We don't even have a complete assessment of the damage or how long it's going to take to correct it. This is our life, though. We have nowhere else to go."

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