On April 20, 2010, far into the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well exploded spreading 4.9 millions barrels of oil into the ocean. It’s been recorded as the nations worst oil spill and largest in the history of petroleum, however BP made headlines with two other major incidences in the past five years, including the Texas City Refinery Explosion and the Prudohoe Bay Oil Spill.
When the well exploded, it killed eleven men, injured another seventeen, and continued to destroy massive amounts of wildlife for the next three months. It’s reported that over 400 different species were killed, including the 464 sea turtles and 60 dolphins. The spill continued for three months, releasing about 53,000 barrels a day. And it wasn’t until July 15 that the well was capped. Besides killing fish and other wildlife, the oil wiped out many of endangered sea creatures, and completely halted fishermen and tourism operations.
The U.S. government declared BP as the cause, who later admitted they’d made past mistakes that eventually led to the spill and were held responsible for all clean up and damage costs BP spent a reported $41 billion to clean up, and provided skimmer boats, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, sand filled barricades and dispersants in an attempt to stop the oil from spreading to beaches and wetlands. But the problem that a lot of fishermen noticed is that there is still a lot of oil out there that can’t be seen by the naked eye, and scientists are saying that there’s still plumes of dissolved oil still somewhere between the oceans floor and surface.