Has the Gulf recovered from the BP oil spill?

Deepwater Horizon
In this April 21, 2010 file image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. Oil giant BP PLC says in an internal report released Wednesday Sept. 8, 2010 that multiple companies and work teams contributed to the massive Gulf of Mexico spill that fouled waters and shorelines for months.
AP Photo/US Coast Guard, File

Two years ago this Sunday, the BP wellhead that ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico was capped. The disaster killed 11 people and spilled nearly five million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. How has the Gulf recovered and what have we learned?

The latest from The Press-Register of Mobile:

New research by an Auburn University professor and other scientists, though, suggests that significant changes had taken place in creatures too small to be seen by the naked eye. Those changes, professor Ken Halanych said, bear further study and could have big impacts that might not become apparent for years.

"When the samples were taken, there wasn't any obvious oil on the beaches, wasn't anything obvious to indicate that the oil spill had happened," he said. "When you went outside and looked at it, it looked rather normal. There was clearly (microscopic) community change and hidden effects."

In April, we spoke with Antonia Juhasz, policy analyst, journalist and author of "Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill." She'll join us again on The Daily Circuit Friday. Aaron Viles, deputy director of the Gulf Restoration Network, will also join the discussion.

"The oil is certainly still here," Viles said. "The science continues to expose a lot of unseen impacts of the BP oil disaster. If you pull together the scientific reports, it seems like the oil has hit every link of the food chain."

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