"Samantha Joye, a University of Georgia marine biologist whose team continues to report findings of thick oil layers deeply embedded on the ocean floor as far as 70 miles from the Macondo well site.
Joye was a member of a team of scientists reporting in mid-August that 80 percent of the oil remained in the Gulf in a highly toxic state and that, due to the high volume of dispersants used near the Macondo site, it is impossible to estimate how long it will take for the oil to fully degrade.
“It’s going to take, I would suspect, years for the system to recover … and it’s going to take more time for certain components of the system to recover,” she told National Public Radio last week."