Gulf Oil Slick Dissolving

Finally, some good news out of the Gulf of Mexico: The oil slick appears to be dissolving at a far faster pace than expected. Although there are still sightings of tar balls and oil patches, the immense swaths of surface oil that covered thousands of miles of the Gulf are mostly gone. The dissolution of the slick can help reduce the deaths of Gulf species and the amount hitting the shorelines, but there are still many problems left, including determining what the effects to sea life below the surface will be and the consequences to the shorelines that have been hit. Scientists said they believed the Gulf’s natural capacity to break up oil has helped with the rapid dissolution of the oil slick, and the capping of the well on July 15th has also prevented oil from gushing for the past two weeks.