15 years after BP oil spill, marine recovery on Louisiana coast brings hope but not full trust
CBSN
Off Grand Isle, Louisiana, is a sportfishing paradise, where dolphins escort Captain Craig Bielkiewicz's charter boat into the Gulf of Mexico. He wanted to show off what matters there: the redfish are biting, and the dolphins are evidence of that fact.
It's another sign the place has slowly recovered over the last 15 years since the catastrophic BP oil spill. In the summer of 2010, panic spread across the region when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf, causing 134 million gallons to gush into the water.
CBS News covered the spill for four months, from the frantic efforts to cap the well to bungled attempts to stop the rust-colored crude oil from poisoning beaches and wetlands. The town of Grand Isle was stuck in the muck of disaster. Mayor David Camardelle fought back tears in an interview on the beach, fearful of the future for local fishermen.
