ABSTRACT
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which began on April 20, 2010, with an explosion on the drilling rig that killed 11 workers, was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. The well was finally capped on July 15, 2010, after several failed efforts, discharging in total an estimated 4.9 million barrels. The spill eventually covered 68,000 square miles of the ocean’s surface. By early June oil was washing up on the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. By July roughly 500 miles of coast were contaminated with oil. The final tally was that approximately 2,100 miles of coastline were affected to some degree. The spill resulted in extensive damage to wildlife, fishing stocks, and gulf and coastal ecologies. The environmental disaster spawned a massive clean-up effort. Estimates of lost tourism dollars to Gulf Coast communities were up to 22.7 billion by 2013.
