Gulf Oil Spill Recovery Still a Distant Dream

Gulf Oil Spill Recovery Still a Distant Dream

When the Gulf Oil Spill happened, a lot of brouhaha was created and rightly so. The BP executives faced the ire of the media and the environmentalists. But recently the scrutiny of the public has gone down a bit after reports from the media that much of the work that has been done by now to remove the oil from the Ocean is successful to a large extent. Certain reports give the figure of 25% remaining oil.

But recently, reports by the Georgia Sea Grant and the University of Georgia have given a very bleak picture. According to this report, almost 79% of the oil that was spilled still remains in the sea and its bad effects will go on to haunt the people living in the coastal areas for a long long time. Charles Hopkinson, director of the Georgia Sea Grant and professor of marine sciences in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences said, "One major misconception is that oil that has dissolved into water is gone and, therefore, harmless. The oil is still out there, and it will likely take years to completely degrade. We are still far from a complete understanding of what its impacts are."

And these are very well reputed scientists that have come up with these latest figures. I guess it was wishful thinking on our part to think that the oil spilled in the sea would go away soon. But I guess that is not the case.