Last month the US Government reported that up to 70% of the oil released during the three months spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been cleared. Now however, The Bellona Foundation, based in Norway, has reported that Professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, who is conducting a study on a research vessel just two miles from the spill zone, said the oil has not disappeared, but is on the sea floor in a layer of scum. That University estimates that as much as 80% of the oil that was released is still there and is blanketing the bottom of the ocean with devastating consequences for the flora and fauna there.
The studies also confirm that hundreds of thousands of gallons of the controversial oil dispersant Corexit dumped on the spill may have done more harm than good by simply cosmetically cleaning up the problem, which, at the bottom of the sea, will do far more long term harm than good.
"We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone," Joye said. "It's in places where nobody has looked for it." All 13 of the core samples Joye and her team have collected from the bottom of the gulf are showing oil from the spill, she said. In some areas the oily material that Joye describes is more than two inches thick. Her team found the material as far as 70 miles away from BP's well. "If we're seeing two and half inches of oil 16 miles away, God knows what we'll see close in – I really can't even guess other than to say it's going to be a whole lot more than two and a half inches," Joye said.
The discoveries are bound to reignite suspicions between residents of the Gulf of Mexico and the Federal Government, which was initially criticized for its handling of the spill. It also vindicates independent environmental research conducted by southern US universities after the spill began, which were initially witheringly denied by Federal response units and BP.
In an interview with ABC News from her vessel, Joye said the oil cannot be natural seepage into the gulf, because the cores they've tested are showing oil only at the top. With natural seepage, the oil would spread from the top to the bottom of the core, she said. "Nobody should be surprised," by the findings, Joye said. "When you apply large scale dispersants, it goes to the bottom – it sediments out. It gets sticky."
While the attention of the World moved on as soon as the damaged well was capped, the effects of the spill on the environment will be felt in the Gulf of Mexico for many years to come
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