“Oil has a finite life span at the surface,” John Amos told The New York Times, who is president of SkyTruth, an environmental advocacy group. “At this point, that oil slick is really starting to dissipate pretty rapidly.”
Radar images also suggest that the few remaining oil patches are breaking down in the Gulf of Mexico, which should reduce the risk of oil killing more animals or blackening shorelines.
“Less oil on the surface does not mean that there isn’t oil beneath the surface, however, or that our beaches and marshes are not still at risk,” Jack Lubchenco told The New York Times, who is an administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We are extremely concerned about the short-term and long-term impacts to the gulf ecosystem.”
Thad W. Allen, a retired Coast Guard admiral who leads the government’s response, suggested the government might be involved for a long time.
“While we would all like to see the area come back as quickly as it can,” he said, “I think we all need to understand that we, at least in the history of this country, we’ve never put this much oil into the water. And we need to take this very seriously.”
