Scientific gathering at UCF

Soon after the BP gusher was plugged last summer, the oil seemed to vanish as if entirely eaten by bacteria, evaporated by hot sun and sea breezes or swept to far reaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

But a two-day scientific gathering at the University of Central Florida last week unveiled several findings that crude oil still troubles the Gulf to a surprising extent.

“Just because you can’t see it or touch it doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” said Benjamin Flower, University of South Florida oceanographer.

In the wake of the three-month, 5 million-barrel blowout, Flower and a team of USF and Eckerd College scientists retrieved dozens of samples from the Gulf’s bottom. What they found over several months was that the seafloor, from south of Panama City to south of Alabama, had become coated in many places with a dark muck.

This excerpt is from an article by Kevin Spear of the Orlando Sentinel. Read the entire piece here.