From above, five years after the BP well explosion, the Gulf of Mexico looks clean, green and whole again, teeming with life—a testament to the resilience of nature.
But The Associated Press reports there’s more than surface shimmering blue and emerald to the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill. And it’s not as pretty a picture—nor is it as clear.
Federal data and numerous scientific studies show lingering problems. Splotches of oil still dot the seafloor and wads of tarry petroleum-smelling material hide in pockets in the marshes of Barataria Bay. Dolphin deaths have more than tripled. Nests of endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles suddenly plummeted after the spill. Some fish have developed skin lesions along with oil in their internal organs. Deep sea coral are hurting.
In some cases the connection to the BP spill is solid; in other cases, it is harder to prove a direct causal link to the spill of millions of gallons of oil over 87 days.
“Look, we put nature on a treadmill and I think it did very very well. We should consider ourselves lucky,” says Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who quickly adds: “It’s the things that we don’t see that have been a concern.”
To assess the health of the Gulf of Mexico in the five years since the April 2010 massive oil spill, The AP surveyed 26 marine scientists about two dozen aspects of the fragile ecosystem to see how this vital waterway has changed. On average, the researchers graded an 11% drop in the overall health of the Gulf of Mexico.
The surveyed scientists on average say that before the spill, the Gulf was a 73 on a 0 to 100 scale. Now it’s a 65. In the survey, scientists report the biggest drops in rating the current health of oysters, dolphins, sea turtles, marshes, and the seafloor. The AP also interviewed more than two dozen other scientists.
“The spill was—and continues to be—a disaster,” says Oregon State marine sciences professor Jane Lubchenco, who was the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the spill. “The bottom line is that oil is nasty stuff. Yes, the Gulf is resilient, but it was hit pretty darn hard.”
NOAA chief scientist Richard Spinrad says the government hopes to finish its five-year assessment on the health of the Gulf by the end of the year, so it is too early to make any real conclusions. Some problems may become evident later. It was not until 10 years after 1989’s Exxon Valdez spill that scientists noticed a dramatic crash in the vital herring population.
Read the full feature, which includes a Q&A on more specifics on the health of marine life populations since the spill, as well as how the marsh has fared and where all the oil went.
