Ecological Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf
ECOGIG website
The goals of ECOGIG are to understand the impacts of natural seepage versus that of abrupt, large hydrocarbon inputs on coupled benthic-pelagic processes in deep water ecosystems and to chart long-term effects and mechanisms of ecosystem recovery from the Deepwater Horizon accident.
ECOGIG reported that deep-water corals are ecosystem-level indicators of acute and chronic hydrocarbon exposure. Some of the heavily impacted sites continued to decline in health and will likely take hundreds of years to recover, if they recover at all. At some of the lightly impacted sites, some of the corals are beginning to regrow some of their branches and may eventually return to the state they were in prior to the spill, although this will also likely take decades to centuries. The loss of these corals has implications for the long-term recovery of the deep-sea ecosystem. They host a community of other species that rely on them for shelter, feeding, and nursery grounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSl1FIwNZb8&t=8s