BP Oil Spill Now Biggest Ever in Gulf: Big Pic
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July 1, 2010 -- BP's massive oil spill became the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, the Associated Press reports, based on the highest of the federal government's estimates.
The oil that has gushed for 10 weeks from a ruptured well a mile under the sea hit the 140.6-million-gallon mark, passing the record-setting, 140-million-gallon Ixtoc I spill off Mexico's coast from 1979 to 1980. Even by the lower end of the government's estimates, at least 71.7 million gallons are in the Gulf.
An estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day has been spurting out of the blown-out well since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank on April 22 some 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Keeping track of the total number of barrels is critical since the London-based oil company will likely be fined per gallon spilled.
Some 423 miles of U.S. shorelines have now been oiled as crude flows into the sea at an alarming rate.
The area around the ill-fated rig hosts an estimated 1,728 species, among them whale sharks, tarpon, tuna, sea turtles and sperm whales. The government's wildlife impact assessment as of June 23 showed that 1,024 birds, 407 sea turtles, and 47 marine mammals had been found dead along the Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi coasts. Nearly 900 animals had been recovered alive, but less than a hundred had so far been returned to the wild.
Image: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
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