Gulf Oil Spill: Marine Life Still Down 60% After 15 Years

Marine life in the Gulf of Mexico fell by about 60% after BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and has still not fully recovered, according to a new study. The April 2010 explosion of an offshore drilling unit 50 miles off the Louisiana coast triggered the largest marine oil spill in history. It released 134 million gallons of oil into the ocean and killed 11 people, injuring 17 others. The study, published Monday in PNAS, found "sudden, severe and persistent declines in the abundance" of fish, cephalopods (a class of marine animals that includes squid and octopuses) and other marine life. These population drops lasted more than a decade.