A decade after the BP oil spill unfolded, marine scientists and experts who study the region say the Gulf has recovered—mostly—and in some ways has improved, particularly in Louisiana, the state most affected by the oil.
As U.S. News & World Report writes, that’s because energy giant BP and other companies that operated the rig have paid into a record $20.8 billion fund to finance the cleanup as well as pay for a series of environmental projects designed to protect Louisiana from catastrophic hurricane damage.
But not all is well.
While some sections of the 1,300-mile Gulf shoreline, U.S. News & World Report notes, have rebounded. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration researchers think oil, and the chemicals used to clean it up, may have altered the reproductive and organ biology of some fish. Scientists are still studying how some of the oil, which sank to the ocean floor, continues to affect deep-sea habitats.
