Saw a recent report that quoted government estimates that up to 75 percent of the 205 or so millions of gallons of oil that spewed in the Gulf during much of the spring and summer has evaporated, dissolved or been somehow collected or contained.
If I lived on the coast and my livelihood were tied to those waters I would be skeptical.
The spill, which started April 20 with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the death of 11 men, has been in the headlines and electronic news loop for much of the summer; amid much finger pointing, hand wringing and predictions of environmental and financial gloom, doom and destruction – all valid complaints and concerns.
The well is now capped (at least for the moment; a permanent fix is coming next month, we’re told) and shrimping season has opened.
I’m planning a trip to the Mississippi coast next week for a couple of days of fishing and expect to see plenty of fish and no oil (I probably wouldn’t have otherwise been invited).
But the oil must be somewhere. The broken well is about a mile deep. Some oil obviously was cleaned up and some dissolved and evaporated. But 154 million gallons (75 percent of the estimated leak)?
The Outdoor Notebook 