Any ecology experts out there?

It's part science and part politics. Oil makes a big mess and everyone hates that, but, oil is a natural product that gets spilled naturally as well as by humans. Naturally, oil kills birds and fish and no one likes that to happen. But, oil does evaporate due to natural processes. So, who knows the real effects it has on the environment? That is why papers are generated- to help understand which details are most important. We have the Gulf spill to use as a laboratory to see both the political issues and the science issues. It looks to me to be mostly about money which ever the focus seems to be. There is the Exxon spill of 30 or so years ago and there are lots of papers on that.