{"id":662971,"date":"2026-10-31T19:36:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662971\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:36:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:36:34","slug":"deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-photos-show-disaster-and-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662971\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepwater Horizon oil spill photos show disaster and aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oct. 30, 2026, 10:55 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in this handout photograph taken on April 21, 2010. The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and spewed oil for 87 straight days. It soaked hundreds of miles of Gulf Coast shoreline in caramel-colored oil.<\/p>\n

US Coast Guard \/ Reuters\"Heather<\/p>\n

Heather Reed, an environmental expert hired by the City of Gulf Breeze, prepares to deploy oil absorbent boom material on Deadman’s Island in Gulf Breeze to protect the waterways, wetlands, marshes, and bayous-which are the nursery grounds for the seafood industry on June 1, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"Streaks<\/p>\n

Streaks left by oil that retreated during low tide are visible on a public beach on June 2, 2010 in Dauphin Island, Alabama, a day after the oil began to appear on Alabama’s shores.<\/p>\n

Win McNamee, Getty Images\"Contractors<\/p>\n

Contractors begin staging at the western end of Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola Bay’s mouth on June 4, 2010, just hours after oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill began washing ashore on Pensacola Beach.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"University<\/p>\n

University of West Florida researcher Barbara Albrecht collects soil and water samples for the high tide areas on Pensacola Beach, on Pensacola Florida on June 7, 2001. UWF collected the samples to measure the effects if any of the oil the washed ashore last weekend.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"BP<\/p>\n

BP contract workers scour Santa Rosa Island looking for and removing any oil or tarballs that may have washed ashore on June 8, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"A<\/p>\n

A BP worker cleans a section of Perdido Key beach near the Florida-Alabama line on June 9, 2010.<\/p>\n

Bruce Graner\/bgraner@pnj.com, Bruce Graner\/bgraner@pnj.com\"A<\/p>\n

A large tar ball is carried by the waves and tides onto the beach near the Fort Pickens fishing pier on June 10, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"Large<\/p>\n

Large and colorful oil plumes can be seen floating near the surface of the water about 6-10 miles south of Pensacola Pass on June 11, 2010. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the plume is two miles wide and stretches 40 miles into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"A<\/p>\n

A shrimp boat skims for oil on the surface of the water about eight miles south of Pensacola Pass on June 11, 2010. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the plume is two miles wide and stretches 40 miles into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"An<\/p>\n

An oiled Pied-Bill Greeb sits on the shore at Johnson Beach waiting to be picked up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 13, 2010.<\/p>\n

John Blackie\/jblackie@pnj.com, John Blackie\/jblackie@pnj.com\"President<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama,center, and Florida Governor Charlie Crist,right, visits Pensacola Beach so Obama can learn first hand how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is effecting the state on June 15, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"Pensacola<\/p>\n

Pensacola City workers Robert Brooks, left, and Derrick Geroge removes a protective boom near Bayou Chico for redeployment to protect sensitive grasses near the 17th Ave boat ramp on June 16, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"Two<\/p>\n

Two Coast Guard volunteers hold an injured dolphin in the shallow waters off Fort Pickens on June 23, 2010, until wildlife rescue personnel could arrive to assess its condition. The dolphin was found beached in close proximity to heavy oil.<\/p>\n

Kaycee Lagarde\/klagarde@pnj.com, Kaycee Lagarde\/klagarde@pnj.com\"Florida<\/p>\n

Florida Governor Charlie Crist inspects oil washed ashore at Casino Beach before checking out the relief work efforts staged at Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"West<\/p>\n

West of the Pensacola Beach Gulf Fishing Pier the beaches along the 1000 block of Ft. Pickens Road are covered with oil on June 23, 2010.<\/p>\n

Bruce Graner\/bgraner@pnj.com, Bruce Graner\/bgraner@pnj.com\"Contract<\/p>\n

Contract workers for BP work to rake and shovel heavy oil tar balls, mats and mousse from the sand along the shoreline at Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"Wide<\/p>\n

Wide streaks of red, brown and oragne crude oil stretch across the surface of the Gulf within three miles of the Perdido Pass on June 24, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"A<\/p>\n

A streak of dark red oil makes its way to shore at a pier in Orange Beach about a mile west of the Perdido Pass June 24, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"Ribbon<\/p>\n

Ribbon and wind rows of crude oil and tar stretch across Pensacola Bay near Pensacola NAS as skimmers and work boats attempt to collect the oil on June 24, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"A<\/p>\n

A streak of dark red oil makes its way to shore at a pier in Orange Beach about a mile west of the Perdido Pass on June 24, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"Wide<\/p>\n

Wide streaks of red, brown and orange crude oil stretch across the surface of the Gulf within three miles of the Perdido Pass on June 24, 2010.<\/p>\n

Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com, Katie King \/ Kking@pnj.com\"BP<\/p>\n

BP contractor workers collect and scrape away washed-up tar balls and other contaminates from the sands of Casino Beach on June 29, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/Pensacola News Journal\"Large<\/p>\n

Large mats of tarballs cover the beaches at Ft. Pickens on June 29, 2010.<\/p>\n

Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson\/tgiberson@pnj.com\"Several<\/p>\n

Several lines of boom protect the entrance to Little Sabine Bay on June 29, 2010.<\/p>\n

Gary McCracken, Gary McCracken\/gmccracken@pnj.com\"Drill<\/p>\n

Drill ships and response vessels work in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast line while attempting to drill relief wells at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill wellhead July 27, 2010.<\/p>\n

Sean Gardner, REUTERS\"Oil<\/p>\n

Oil clean up stations sit along East Grand Terre near Grand Isle, Louisiana April 20, 2011. When BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, killing 11 workers, authorities first reported that no crude was leaking into the ocean. One year on, oil from the largest spill in U.S. history clogs wetlands, pollutes the ocean and endangers wildlife, inflicting a toll on the coastal economies in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Sean Gardner, REUTERS\"Workers<\/p>\n

Workers remove oil soaked grass from a marshland, one year after the BP Oil Spill, in Bay Jimmy near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana April 20, 2011. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig at BP’s Macondo undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil from the UK energy giant’s ruptured well, triggering the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Lee Celano, REUTERS\"Close<\/p>\n

Close up of a lanternfish, one of the species that suffered major declines in the Gulf of America (renamed from the Gulf of Mexico by the Trump Administration) after 2011.<\/p>\n

Provided By NOAA\/ DEEPEND\/ Dante\u0301 Fenolio\"Participants<\/p>\n

Participants gather around crosses honoring the workers who died on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, during a service marking the one-year anniversary of the BP Oil Spill in Grand Isle, Louisiana April 20, 2011.<\/p>\n

Lee Celano, REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct. 30, 2026, 10:55 a.m. ET Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[116249,242,85,46,141,200693,50297,120462,298510,298509,127927,298512,298511,117396],"class_list":["post-662971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-accessmetered","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-sourceusa-today","tag-sstsnewsnation","tag-sstsnnation","tag-tagalabama","tag-tagbp-oil-spill","tag-tagflorida","tag-taggulf-of-mexico","tag-taglouisiana","tag-typegallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}