Please let me state this, for those who are not scientifically inclined:
Oil is a nature killer.
Take me up on this challenge. Go to your nearest garden center/hardware store, etc. Examine the ingredient label of the “bug killers.” You’ll note that nearly every one of them contains an oil product as one of the first ingredients.
Why? Because it denies the birth of a next generation of critters.
Oil coats eggs. The eggs of sea creatures as well as land creatures. Science teaches us that eggs need to “breathe” in order to be fresh; oil prevents this. Btw, if you have any old cookbooks...people USED TO ask if coating chicken eggs (like we have in cartons) with wax or oil would make them last longer. It doesn’t, and that is why we cannot buy eggs treated this way. What, you don’t think the growers would do this if they thought it would make their product last longer????
In any event, oil seals eggs, rendering them dead. We are not going to feel the effects now; we will feel them in the next two or three years, when there is no longer any Gulf progeny. Unless some smart set of scientists did a Noah’s Ark type of rescue of adults and eggs, as this mess unfolded, this is going to ruin the Gulf seafood business, down the road.
If you’re a fan of Gulf seafood products, I suggest you buy up what you can now, and carefully process it to go in your freezer.
I have no dog in this fight, as I’m allergic to seafood. But I hate to know what is going to befall our mom & pop seafood businesses in the Gulf.
You are ignoring historical large oil spills that did not produce the effect you claim.
Look up the PEMEX Ixtoc 1 for a Gulf of Mexico example.