Just two short weeks after BP finally managed to cap it’s leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico much of the oil slick that had spread for 1,000’s of miles across the Gulf has disappeared. The army of skimming crews working in the Gulf isn’t responsible for much of the removal either – they have skimmed only a very small amount from the surface.
“It’s very unusual to get more than 1 or 2 percent,” says Cornell University ecologist Richard Howarth, who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill.
A lot of it has probably evaporated, according to scientists. Apparently as much as 40% may have evaporated when it reached the surface. Some of the oil has undoubtedly settled into the sediments on the ocean floor as well. In fact, most researchers say the ocean floor is where the spill can do the most damage. But according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, “federal scientists [have determined] the oil [is] primarily sitting in the water column and not on the sea floor.”
And in that water there are microbes, tiny, oil ingesting bacteria and fungus that are doing most of the work of cleaning up the Gulf waters. Every ocean in the world has been shown to contain these tiny, oil spill fighting heroes, and the Gulf of Mexico has more than most. With it’s warm temperature and wealth of natural oil leaks, it’s a great habitat for the hearty petroleum eaters. Even more encouraging, the microbes seem to be feasting on the controversial dispersant chemicals that BP has flooded the Gulf with in it’s attempts to control the spill.
It remains to be seen how much lasting damage the spill will have – and there will certainly be plenty, particularly if BP doesn’t find a permanent way to cap the well soon.
