Scenes From The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill

Photo: Getty Images The spill that followed the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform off the coast of Louisiana has become the worst oil spill in American history. Dramatic imagery helps to tell the story of the disaster that is transforming the American Gulf coast. CNBC.com will continue to update this slideshow as events warrant. Click ahead for images from the 2010 Gulf oil spill. By Paul Toscano, Florence Zaitoun, Christina Cheddar-Berk and Paul AlvordPosted April 30 2010

Photo: Getty Images Al Gros looks listens to Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, speak at a town hall meeting about the $20 billion fund set up to pay damage claims from the BP oil spill July 15, 2010, in Lafitte, Louisiana.

Photo: Getty Images Near the source of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, oil sheen is shown on the water on July 18, 2010. Scientists continue to monitor the area near where BP's oil well has been sealed, looking for signs that the well is leaking or if the pressure in the well changes.

Photo: Getty Images BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill National Incident Commander Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen points to an illustration of the well cap stack and where leaks have been spotted during a news conference at the Department of Health and Human Services July 19, 2010, in Washington, DC. Allen said that the oil and gas are leaking from the new cap on BP's ruptured oil well are not a major concern so far.

Photo: Getty Images A worker makes adjustments to oil boom July 19, 2010, near Pointe Aux Chenes, Louisiana. Officials are concerned about potential leakage spotted near BP's newly installed oil well cap which appeared to be sealed.

Photo: AP A 75-ton cap was placed atop the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and gradually values in the cap were shut. On the left, oil flows from two of three values. On the right, the top of the cap is shown minutes after the flow of oil was choked off on July 15.

Photo: Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images US President Barack Obama speaks on the BP oil spill in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC. Obama Friday gave a cautious welcome to the "good news" that BP has halted the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, saying a permanent solution still needed to be put in place.

Workers onboard the Transocean Discoverer Inspiration are deploying the 3 Ram Capping Stack to the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer in hopes of containing the spill and stopping the flow of oil.

Photo: Getty Images A can is seen coated with oil that washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: Dieter Nagl | AFP | Getty Images Greenpeace activists invite pedestrians in Vienna to write a message to the BP oil company on a giant banner, reading: 'Oil Kills,' in the center of the company's logo.

Photo: Getty Images Oil coats a barrier on the shoreline as high winds and waves caused the cancellation of cleanup operations on the beach.

Photo: Getty Images BP protests continue as crews on the scene come close to plugging the leak on the ocean floor. In this photo, a protester holds a sign mocking former Vice Presidental candidate and former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, for her support of offshore drilling.

Photo: Getty Images A slick of oil is seen on the beach after it washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: NASA New satellite imagery from NASA shows the affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico on June 27, 2010.

Photo: Getty Images Oil cleanup workers are evacuated from the beach, as a feeder band from Tropical Storm Alex causes high winds and lightning in the area around Fourchon Beach on June 29, 2010, in Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Photo: Getty Images Containment boom is seen placed on the beach. Efforts to clean the beach from effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill stopped due to bad weather created by Tropical Storm Alex on June 29, 2010, on Elmer's Island, Louisiana.

Workers are seen in Port Fourchon, Louisiana as they use a vacuum hose to capture some of the oil washing on to Fourchon Beach from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 28, 2010.

Photo: Getty Images Oil burns and creates plumes of smoke near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on June 19, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

Photo: BP Deployment of boom on the Oyster River on the Bon Secour Bay on the Inter Coastal Waterway.

Photo: BP Booms laid for protection at Breton National Wildlife Refuge, near Venice, LA.

Photo: BP Workers clean tar balls from beaches in Perdido Key, Florida.

Photo: BP ROV operations onboard Discoverer Enterprise, on the site of the Deepwater Horizon incident. Gas and oil from the wellhead are being brought to the surface via a tube that was placed inside the damaged pipe.

Photo: Getty Images Workers use a vacuum as they continue the cleanup of oil in Barataria Bay,  near Grand Isle, Louisiana, on June 19, 2010.

Photo: Getty Images The Discoverer Enterprise burns off gas as it collects oil at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on June 19, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

Photo: Getty Images An oil-stained Sandwich Tern sits on oil absorbent boom in Long Bay on June 19, 2010, west of Port Sulpher, Louisiana. The bird was reported and delivered to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for rehabilitation.

Photo: Getty Images A worker walks through the main operations room for the Houma Deepwater Horizon Unified Command June 17, 2010, in Schriever, Louisiana. The command center, a 24-hour operation employing hundreds of workers, consists of BP employees, the United States Coast Guard and a variety of state and local agencies coordinating in the cleanup operation for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: Getty Images A pelican flies over an oil slick boom off of Bird Island Two in Grand Isle, Louisiana. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, some 1,282 oiled birds have been captured in time to be treated with the intention of eventually releasing them back into the wild.

Photo: BP The nation is continually reminded of the oil leaking from the ocean's floor via BP's underwater cameras. Authorities have recently revised their estimates of oil leaking to between 40,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.

Credit: Getty Images A contract clean-up worker uses a hose to collect oil in Bay Jimmy on June 15, 2010, off of Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Photo: Chris Kleponis | AFP | Getty Images BP CEO Tony Hayward appears before a House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on 'The Role Of BP In The Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill', in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 17, 2010. Hayward is appeared before members of Congress as the historical and deadly oil spill disaster is nearing two months. Hayward promised angry lawmakers that he would 'take action' against any of his employees found to have put costs over safety ahead of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Members of Congress, however, we dissatisfied with Haywar, accusing him of "stonewalling" and dodging questions regarding the spill.

Photo: Getty Images Workers lay out new lines of boom along a pier on June 14, 2010, in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Photo: Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images US President Barack Obama poses with patrons at Tacky Jacks Bar and Grill where he stopped for dinner June 14, 2010, in Orange Beach, Alabama. The President vowed to protect the way of life of residents in the oil-hit Gulf of Mexico region, as the US government ramped up efforts to ensure seafood is safe to eat.

Photo: Getty Images A sign announces the closing of a seafood stand due to the oil spill June 13, 2010, in Lafourche, Louisiana. The spill has been called the largest environmental disaster in American history. U.S. government scientists have estimated that the flow rate of oil gushing out of a ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well may be as high 40,000 barrels per day.

Photo: Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images Workers shovel oiled sand hit by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill from the Gulf of Mexico to be disposed as cleanup crews work to clean the beach at Grand Isle State Park in Grand Isle, Louisiana, June 13, 2010.

Photo: Getty Images Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speaks with employees in the oil and gas industry about U.S. President Obama`s moratorium on Deep Water Drilling June 10, 2010, at a port slip used for ships involved in the oil drilling business in Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Photo: Getty Images A flare burns from a drill ship recovering oil from the ruptured BP oil well over the site in the Gulf of Mexico on June 9, 2010, off the coast of Louisiana. As the oil continues to spread, officials have announced a ban on swimming along a six-mile stretch of Florida beach

Photo: Getty Images Michela Stievano clears a table at The Boardwalk Cafe on June 9, 2010, in Pensacola, Florida. The cafe has experienced a slowdown in business which may be blamed on the residue washing up on Pensacola Beach from the spill.As more oil residue floats ashore many fear that there will be a huge economic impact on local economies with some saying 200,000 people may lose their jobs.

Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Veterinarians clean an oil covered brown pelican found off the Louisiana coast and affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana, June 9, 2010.

Photo: Getty Images Workers clean up oil patches and tar that washed up on the beach from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 8, 2010, in Orange Beach, Alabama.

Photo: BP After more pressure from Congress, BP placed a new High-definition camera near the site of the leaking oil. Although many people question whether the live cameras are adding to the problem, instead of helping efforts or public awareness. To the left is an image from the new cameras.

Photo: Getty Images Workers are seen clearing the oil residue that has washed up on Pensacola Beach from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 7, 2010.  BP has also stepped up clean-up efforts by hiring previously unemployed workers to tend to the affected shores.

Photo: Getty Images A Coast Guard boat passes as workers put oil containment booms in the water as they try to protect the inlet waterways from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 7, 2010, in Pensacola, Florida.

Photo: Getty Images US President Barack Obama talks to the media during a meeting with cabinet members to discuss the administration's response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the White House in Washington on June 7, 2010. Obama warned that the economic impact from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would be "substantial" as he met top officials in the disaster-control effort. Obama also ramped up pressure on BP to streamline its claims process for Gulf Coast residents seeking compensation for lost livelihoods and promised them "constant, vigilant attention" from his administration.

Photo: Getty Images A memorial built in Grand Isle, Louisiana, on June 6, 2010, by Patrick Shay and his neighbors shows the many things lost due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At the time, BP's latest attempt to stem the flow of oil from the well head was capturing a portion of the oil flowing out, but much of it continued to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: Getty Images A brown pelican coated in heavy oil wallows in the surf June 4, 2010, on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident is coming ashore in large volumes across southern Louisiana coastal areas.

Photo: Getty Images Charlie Green is overcome with emotion on June 6, 2010, during a public prayer vigil for the oil spill along Pensacola Beach, Florida, where oil globs have come ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The vigil was put on by the Pensacola Beach Community Church.

Photo: Getty Images U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen briefs reporters at the White House on June 7, 2010, in Washington, DC. Allen, the national incident commander over the federal government's response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, warned that clean up of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history could go on into the fall even if the flow of oil from the out-of-contril well was stemmed by the end of summer.

Photo: Jason Andrew | Getty Images Members of the National Wildlife Federation look over the edge of their boat while surveying the oxidized oil off of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana. The oil is being broken up by chemical dispersants and is drifting throughout the Gulf of Mexico.Some computer models suggest the currents could carry the oil along the Atlantic coast as early as this summer.

Photo: Getty Images Contract workers patrol the beach to pick up oil that washed ashore on a public beach on June 2, 2010, in Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Photo: BP In an attempt to stop the flow of oil, BP employed an underwater saw that looked to slice a rise pipe, then cap it so that oil could be siphoned to the surface. This is the company's latest attempt to stem the flow of oil, and appears to have worked.

Photo: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team Multiple cameras on JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft were used to create two unique views of oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands.

Credit: Getty Images Greg Vesely posts a warning of "oil-related chemicals" in the water at an entrance to a public beach on June 2, 2010, in Dauphin Island, Alabama. Oil believed to be from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident began to appear on the shores of Alabama in early June.

Photo: Getty Images A contract worker patrols the beach to pick up oil that began washing ashore on a public beach on June 2, 2010, in Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Photo: Ben Stansall | AFP | Getty Images Greenpeace demonstrators protest outside the staff entrance to British Petroleum (BP) headquarters in central London, on May 20, 2010. This banner was hung outside BP's headquarters in lieu of its official flag, after activists scaled the building above the main entrance.That day, BP said it was retrieving about 3,000 barrels of oil per day, or 60 percent of the flow, from the enormous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico using a pipe fed to the site of the leak.

Photo: Getty Images A sign warns the public away from the beach on May 23, 2010, on Grand Isle, Louisiana. With oil covering many of the beaches in the area, officials closed them to the public indefinitely. Officials now say that it may be impossible to clean the coastal wetlands affected by the massive oil spill that continues gushing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: Getty Images A BP cleanup crew shovels oil from a beach on May 24, 2010, at Port Fourchon, Louisiana. BP CEO Tony Hayward, who visited the beach, said that BP is doing everything possible to clean up the massive oil spill still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: NASA A satellite photo shows the oil spill catching the gulf current and spreading in all directions, including towards Florida.In the Florida Keys, reports of tarballs landing on shore have created widespread worry that the oil spill may now also threaten the fragile coast in the area.

Photo: Getty Images Smoke rises from a controlled burn on May 19, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. According to reports, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered BP to use a less toxic chemical oil dispersant to break up the oil in the Gulf. Controlled burns can only be carried out in open areas and when wind conditions permit.

Photo: Mark Wilson | Getty Images Senate Small Business Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA), shows charts of Louisiana during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2010, in Washington, DC. Sen. Landrieu unveiled oil disaster relief measures for Gulf Coast businesses and communities.

Photo: Getty Images Oil coats beach sand at the mouth of the Mississippi River on May 17, 2010, south of Venice, Louisiana. BP announced today that it is siphoning off 1,000 barrels of oil per day from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The amount of oil escaping from the well is a matter of dispute, making the success of BP's effort difficult for regulators to ascertain.

Photo: Getty Images A tar ball that washed ashore in Louisiana. Objects like these have been seen on shore, spurring cleanup efforts, from Texas to Florida. Tarballs are blobs of crude oil that have coagulated after the ocean chemistry breaks up the thin surface slicks. Tarballs are described by the NOAA as "hard and crusty on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside, not unlike a toasted marshmallow."

Photo: Getty Images Greenpeace marine biologist Paul Horsman examines oil washed onto a beach with the tide at the mouth of the Mississippi River on May 17, 2010, near Venice, Louisiana.

Photo: AP Oil spewing from a broken pipe 5,000 feet below the ocean's surface. The images were taken from robotic cameras lowered by crews attempting to stop the leak.

Photo: Getty Images Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) deliver opening remarks about the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and resulting oil spill. Executives involved with the spill have been grilled in Congress, but have effectively shifted blame for the disaster's causes.

Photo: Getty Images BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay, Transocean President and CEO Steven Newman and Tim Probert, Halliburton's chief health, safety and environmental officer, are sworn in before testifying to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about the Deepwater Horizon explosion.During testimony, BP laid some responsibility for the accident on Transocean, who, in turn, laid blame on Halliburton. Many, including the senators overseeing the hearings, accused the executives of dodging responsibility by finger-pointing and shifting blame.

Photo: AP A pollution containment chamber, known as a "top hat", is lowered into the Gulf of Mexico by the motor vessel Viking Poseidon.

Photo: Getty Images Workers clean a beach after tar balls wash up. This is a part of the efforts that are continuing to contain BP's massive oil spill.

Photo: Getty Images The mobile offshore drilling unit Q4000 lowers a pollution containment chamber into oily water at the Deepwater Horizon site on May 7, 2010. The attempt, however, was unsuccessful as frozen water and gas crystals formed, forcing crews to move the dome. Officials then tried a "junk shot" where debris was shot into the blowout preventer in the hope of clogging the leak. That also was unsuccessful.

Photo: Getty Images Oil booms are seen surrounding an island as they try to protect it from the massive oil spill on May 9, 2010, in Gulf of Mexico.

Photo: AP As part of the containment strategy, in certain areas crews are conducting controlled burns of surface oil, skimming oil from the surface and using chemical dispersants. These burns are only happening in areas where waters are calm and the fires can be successfully controlled.

Photo: Getty Images A shrimp boat passes through a heavy oil slick as it uses the deployed oil boom and absorption pads to collect the oil from the massive spill on May 5 in Breton and Chandeleur sounds off the coast of Louisiana.BP has offered to compensate fishermen one month's pay for their lost wages as a result of the spill, and has also employed boats like this one to help contain the oil. Click here for the full story.

Photo: Stan Honda | AFP | Getty Images Men walk on the dock as the fishing fleet sits idle May 5, 2010, in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Emergency crews rushed to protect fragile shorelines and islands as the Gulf of Mexico oil slick expanded, prompting a mobilization of more national guard troops and alerts as far as the Florida Keys. Volunteers and others have descended on the region to help stave off a looming environmental crisis from the huge oil patch.

Photo: Getty Images A convoy of small boats head out along the Mississippi River towards South Pass on May 4, 2010, in Venice, Louisiana. Venice is one of the major staging areas for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and one of the areas most threatened by the approaching oil.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images / Photo: Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images  A safety officer watches as the 'Pollution Control Dome' is built by steelworkers at the Martin Terminal worksite in Port Fourchon, as BP rushes to cap the source of the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform.For more on the Dome Project, click hereUsing remote-controlled submarines to shut off the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is like doing 'open heart surgery at 5,000 feet in the dark,' the head of BP's US operations said.

Photo: AP Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research workers in Fort Jackson, Louisiana, clean a Northern Gannet bird covered in oil from Deepwater Horizon oil rig incident. It was the first bird impacted by the oil spill.In the weeks since the spill, turtles, Men 'o war, and other animals been killed by the oil spill.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images / Photo: Joe Raedle | Getty Images A sign reads, "Pray for Our Gulf", in front of an animal medical center as people continue to monitor the massive oil spill in Bienville, Mississippi. Fears run deep that the spill could significantly affect tourism, employment and output throughout the Gulf Coast region.

Photo: Mary Catherine Wellons for CNBC.com / Photo: Mary Catherine Wellons for CNBC.com Robots much like this model, on display at the Offshore Tech conference in Houston, Texas, are on the scene in the Gulf of Mexico attempting to stop the leak. Manufactured by Schilling Robotics, these "ROVs" are used to do construction work on the sea floor. They cost anywhere from $4 million to $5 million.

Scott Olson | Getty Images / Photo: Scott Olson | Getty Images Cody Fonseca and his brother Chris sort through blue crab caught in the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary at the La Blue Crab Company in Larose, Louisiana. Fishermen who fish the estuary are concerned that oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill could adversely affect fishing either through oil contamination or overfishing as other fishermen seek out new areas to make a living.

Getty Images / Photo: Getty Images After seeing images of the environmental destruction as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew his support of offshore drilling in his state.He said that: "If I have a choice between the $100 million and what I see in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd rather just figure out how to make up for that $100 million."

Photo: Getty Images President Obama addresses the media at the Coast Guard Station in Venice, Louisiana on May 2, 2010.The President traveled to Louisiana, where he conducted a personal assessment of the aftermath of the explosion of a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which continues to spill millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, threatening fisheries and beaches.

Photo: Stan Honda | AFP | Getty Images A shrimp boat returns to harbor May 2, 2010, in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The fleet is grounded as the oil spill from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster approaches the Gulf Coast.

Photo: Getty Images A boat uses a protective boom to collect oil that has leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. At the time this picture was taken, about 5,000 barrels of oil a day were estimated to be leaking into the Gulf.

Photo: Getty Images In this satellite image from NASA, taken in early May, an oil slick can be clearly seen off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. To contain this quickly-growing slick of oil, crews are trying everything from containment to the deployment of chemical mixtures to lighting the oil on fire.

Photo: Getty Images To contain the oil, which rests atop the ocean water, boats work in tandem to collect the fuel, which is trapped by fire-resistant bouys, and remove it from the water.

Photo: Getty Images The Coast Guard has deployed an estimated 76 vessels to the area to help contain the disaster, utilizing specialized skimmer vessels to gather and contain the oil in preparation for controlled fires.

Photo: Getty Images As response teams worked around the clock to contain the oil, crews are also working to determine the most effective method of stopping the oil's flow. Some speculate that the scale of this disaster could have been averted with the use of a remote-controlled device that would have cut off the oil miles below the ocean's surface.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Eighth District External Affairs Transocean's Development Driller III, shown in this file photo, was sent to the site of the Deepwater Horizon incident. The drilling unit is being used to drill relief wells in order to stop the flow of oil emanating from the wellhead if efforts to secure the blow off preventor are unsuccesful.

Photo: Getty Images Images from the U.S. Coast Guard show the fire boat response crews battling the burning remnants of Deepwater Horizon immediately following the devastating explosion on April 20, 2010. The fire and spewing oil hampered early efforts to plug the leak, which was estimated to be pouring 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day.

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