BP Oil Spill: Where does the coast stand 14 years later?

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Saturday marks 14 years since the Mississippi Gulf Coast was changed forever.

On April 20, 2010, the Gulf of Mexico saw the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The catastrophe killed 11 workers, sent over 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and washed onto the shores of the Gulf Coast. The spill continued for the next four weeks and two days, causing lasting environmental and economic impacts.

“A lot of the grasslands and the marsh and all had a lot of devastation there because the oil get in and it would kill the grasses and also kill what was in the grasses,” explained Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Executive Director Joe Spraggins.

Not only were grasslands a major concern, but also the waters of the Mississippi Sound and all that lived in and around it. From wildlife to tourism, several industries felt the negative impacts of the spill — but perhaps none more so than the oyster industry.

“It impacted our fisheries but mainly our oysters,” said Spraggins. “The oysters were impacted pretty hard because the oil got on them and caused issues there.”

Spraggins said the issue of the massive wipe-out of oysters began to fix itself. However, things worsened just a year later with the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2011 and again in 2019.

“It basically wiped out our oyster season again. We have not had an oyster season as far as on-bottom oysters since 2018.”

Due to the RESTORE Act, the coast has received hundreds of millions of dollars to put towards restoration.

“We’re also working with DEQ on numerous oyster beds we’ve been able to build to replenish the oysters.”

Spraggins said it’s going to take all of us to be able to continue to protect the Mississippi Sound and our Gulf Coast.

“If you get around the islands or around the shoreline and you see grasses, try to be protective of those. The grasses are huge and they’re the area that allows our estuary to grow.”

14 years later, Spraggins said everything is so much better than it was in the months and initial years following the oil spill disaster, but there is still much to do.

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