More disturbing discoveries developing in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. Surveys of the sea floor near the BP oil well in Mexico has turned up dead and dying coral reefs.
Callogorgia gracilis, with brittle star Asteroschema
The coral sites lie seven miles southwest of the well, at a depth of about 4,500 feet, in an area where large plumes of dispersed oil were discovered drifting through the deep ocean last spring in the early weeks after the spill.
Coral sites in shallow waters farther from the oil spill epicenter have not suffered as severely but I’m sure we’ll be discovering long-term after effects of the spill in years to come.
More info can be found from this NY times article.