If I review the last thread on this, I'd bet I was saying this all along. Imagining the size of the gulf as compared to the size of a research submarine, I think there is more to the story. I like to think in mathematics at times and this is one of them. If we catch a mouse and dispose of it we really have eliminated thousands of mice due to thier high rate of reproduction. So a seabed full of dead dead critters that can no longer reproduce impacts the population forever. The gulf may recover, but mathematicly speaking the population of sea life is much less.    

(Have I left anything out? )


Edit: this is what I'm getting at about reproduction.. a quote---Mouse trivea

  "They can give birth to as many as 40 pups per year, and those progeny can start having babies about 8 weeks later each producing up to 10 litters per year."