Why Isn't Bioremediation Being Employed on the Gulf Oil Leak?

Dispersants, skimmers, absorbents, containment booms, and shovels are all that the public hears about as being used to clean up the oil that is currently fouling the tidal marshes, rivers and beaches of the Gulf coast. These primitive technologies are proving to be largely ineffective. What about bioremediation? Naturally occurring, hydrocarbon-degrading, microbes are available that can be employed to degrade the oil. A major objection that is raised with respect to use of oil degrading microbes is that oxygen deprivation will result from their use. This is true, but the environmental impact of transient oxygen deprivation versus the persistent effects of harmful petroleum compounds on Gulf habitats has not been discussed. Forty years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, oil can still be found just beneath the surface of the shoreline of the rocky coves of Prince William Sound. Despite the extensive cleanup attempts employed in Alaska Oil Spill (which used the same techniques currently being used in the Gulf Sea), less than ten percent of the oil was recovered.