ENVIRONMENT
The Gulf Oil Spill Two Years Later—PICTURES
Updated: November 15, 2012 | 10:32 a.m.
April 20, 2012 | 12:58 p.m.
More than two years after the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, much of the damage remains below the surface. But increasingly, the manifestations of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history are washing up on the region's beaches and marshes.
Below are images of the damage this disaster is having on the ecosystem of the Gulf.
Pelicans gather near where mangrove and marsh grass used to be on Cat Island in Plaquemines Parish, La., in this April 11, 2012 photo. (GERALD HERBERT/AP)
A shrimper works on his boat in Lafitte, La on May 16, 2012. Fishing catches were still lower than usual, two years after the BP spill. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dying and dead mangrove is seen from water level along the eroding shoreline of Cat Island in Barataria Bay in Plaquemines Parish, La., Wednesday, April 11, 2012. ((AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In this photo taken in May 2011, a Kemp's ridley sea turtle with a tracking antenna attached to its shell sits in the sand depositing eggs at Padre Island National Seashore National Park in south Texas. The Kemp's ridley is an endangered species. (PAT SULLIVAN/AP)
A flock of birds flies towards an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle, La., Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Grand Isle is a coastal community centered around fishing and tourism that was heavily impacted by last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Wisner Properties Field Inspector Forrest Travirca walks in an area of dead marsh grass in April 2011 near Port Fourchon, La., that was impacted by oil from the BP spill. (PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP)
Garret Graves, director of the Louisiana Office of Coastal Activities, displays oil that he dug up in the Middle Ground wetlands on the coast of Louisiana in April 2011 during a tour of coastal areas that were still being affected by the BP oil spill. (PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP)
A cross with the words "promises made," referring to promises made by BP and government officials responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, stands in front of a pile of crosses in a front yard in Grand Isle, La., in this April 2011 photo. (PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP)
A dolphin lies dead on a beach on Horn Island in the Gulf of Mexico in this May 2010 photo. (Mike Stewart/AP)
These May 2010 photos show Cat Island, home to hundreds of pelicans, terns, gulls, and spoonbills. (GERALD HERBERT/AP)
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