[Wonder Warthog]

"Oh yes, and all of the South Texas coast was impaced by it, North Padre Island especially. Booms, however, protected most of the estuaries."

Yes. There is a VERY complete scientific report on the effects of the spill off the Texas coast. It turns out that the "Bureau of Land Management" (I assume of the state of Texas) had recently completed a very large biological survey of that part of the coast before the spill hit, so they had a good baseline for comparison. Again, the results were indicative of a pretty rapid recovery.

That report is online somewhere, but Heaven knows if I can find it again.

[D-fendr]

The report is here:

http://invertebrates.si.edu/mms/reports/IXTOC_exec.pdf

I read it last week. There’s good and bad in it. I lived in Texas through that, it also impacted the governor’s race. I would not want that hitting the shore again; however, I don’t see a tight comparison with this blowout, due to the location and depth and currents, where its impact will be and how much.