As the weeks pass, evidence is increasing that through a combination of luck (a fortunate shift in ocean currents that kept much of the oil away from shore) and ecological circumstance (the relatively warm waters that increased the breakdown rate of the oil), the Gulf region appears to have escaped the direst predictions of the spring. ...
The numbers of oiled birds collected dead or alive — in the mid-7,000s as of Sept. 1 — is small compared with the avian toll of the Exxon Valdez. Carcasses of more than 35,000 birds were found immediately after that spill; 250,000 were believed to have died.
Far less coastline was oiled too, says NOAA: a few hundred miles on the Gulf Coast compared to about 1,300 in Alaska in 1989.
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