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While scenes such as these are no longer present, the oil is still doing hidden damage to the Gulf. AP Photo
The release of a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has generated a new debate over the oil spill in the Gulf. The five page report claimed that approximately 30 percent of the oil in the Gulf remains. The other 70 percent was either burned, captured, dispersed or naturally degraded, according to the report. However, the report also stressed that the remaining 30 percent of oil was still an amount five times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Even with that cautionary note, many experts immediately questioned the findings. The amount of oil captured is relatively definitive number which can be confirmed, but the amount of oil dispersed, burned or naturally degraded all involves some guesswork. The report gave no detail on how officials determined the amount of oil that evaporated or that was dispersed in the Gulf. The report assumed that underwater plumes of oil simply do not exist, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Time quotes Florida State University oceanography professor Ian MacDonald as saying, "This is a shaky report. The more I read it, the less satisfied I am with the thoroughness of the presentation. There are sweeping assumptions here." Even one of the scientists cited in the report said he was uncomfortable with putting definitive percentages on the amount of oil left in the Gulf.
The report makes residents of the Gulf Coast question whether they will receive the support they need in the coming years to overcome the disaster. New pictures (such as that seen above) of oily birds have gone away. Media attention on the spill has largely gone away with them. The reduced oil on the surface is no longer producing these scenes, but scientists warn that the remaining underwater oil, along with chemical dispersants, could still be doing tremendous damage. There are no pictures showing how the underwater oil is impacting bottom-feeders in the Gulf, or the decreasing oxygen supply in the water affecting the fish and shrimp population.
There may be much less environmental damage that was previously anticipated, or there may be much more, that we simply do not know yet. All the scientists, including those in the NOAA report, agree that more studies and research will have to be done to see what the long-term environmental impacts of the spill are.
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