How BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill could actually lead to an increase in fish stocks

The massive BP oil spill could lead to increased fish stocks and improvements in biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico, according to marine expert.

The White House admitted yesterday that the leak was less catastrophic than previously thought.

In a humiliating climbdown, the Obama administration conceded the 'vast majority' of the oil that gushed into the ocean from the ruptured well has already gone.

The rest, it says, is probably so diluted, it does not appear to pose much of a threat.

'Static kill': Ships work near the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the latest operation to plug the leak

Underwater battle: The view from a submersible while checking the the well head

The extraordinary change of tune came after government scientists concluded, much to President Obama's embarrassment, that three-quarters of the leaked oil has evaporated, dispersed, been burned off or been contained.

Now a leading marine scientist has said the culmination of a fishing ban in the region and swiftly dispersing oil could lead to fish stocks improving.

'The oil may have killed fewer fish than the fisherman would have done,' Martin Preston, senior lecturer in ocean sciences at the University of Liverpool, told the Times.

'Stocks may look better next year but we won't know until then. The big imponderable is the effect of the toxicity of the oil on the larval stage of the fish.'

And he said though young fish were at the mercy of the spill, some of the more mature specimens would have survived by swimming to less polluted areas.

'Dead fish float and there have been no reports of large numbers of dead fish floating around,' he said.

Dr Preston, who studied the impact of a bigger spill in the Persian Gulf after the 1991 Gulf War, said that incident had led to bigger catches in the following years.

'When they got fishing again after the war, they had more and bigger fish because they had been allowed to develop without overfishing,' he said.



The report was released as BP announced 'encouraging' progress on its 'static kill' attempt to seal the leak.

The U.S. official in charge of the spill also announced BP would start pumping cement into its blown-out oil well to begin sealing the leak for good.

'Based on the successful completion of the static kill procedure and a positive evaluation of the test results, I have authorized BP to cement its damaged well,' retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said in a brief statement.

According to the report unveiled yesterday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the remaining oil - mostly a light sheen on the surface or dispersed underwater - is breaking down rapidly.

The Blue Dolphin, left, and the HOS Centerline, the ships supplying the mud for the static kill operation on the Helix Q4000

Bobby Bolton, BP wellsite leader,on board the Helix Q4000, which is performing the static kill procedure

The findings raise serious questions over the American government's torrid attacks on BP in the aftermath of the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled millions of gallons of crude into the ocean.

Mr Obama has already been accused of targeting the British oil giant to avert fears the spill was becoming a political liability for his Democrat Party in the run-up to the November mid-term elections.

Underwater view of the BP well as the company's 'static kill' gets under way

But last night the White House ruled out an apology for beleaguered outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward.

Fishermen and businesses in the devastated Gulf region that have lost millions of pounds worth of business because of the oil scare will be asking whether the effects of the leak have been hugely exaggerated.

White House energy adviser Carol Browner had to acknowledge the success of the clean-up operation yesterday as the scientists' report playing down the scale of the disaster was unveiled.



She said: 'The vast majority of the oil has been contained, it's been burned, it's been cleaned. The scientists are telling us about 25 per cent that was not captured or evaporated or taken care of by Mother Nature.'

She added that the remaining oil 'will break down naturally'.

But Ian MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University, warned that even 25 per cent of the oil from the BP spill was five times the amount of oil lost in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

He said: 'An enormous amount of oil is now buried and we know from previous spills that this buried material can persist for decades.'

Pressure on the Obama administration to explain its approach to the disaster was growing in Washington as BP announced that its 'static kill' attempt to shut down the leak for good had worked.



A graphic from May 24th which shows the extent of the oil spill around a month after the disaster

By July 26, much of the oil has dispersed either naturally or has been skimmed from the surface

BP said the success was a ' significant milestone' towards plugging the well permanently.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said no one owed Mr Hayward an apology.

He said the clean-up results would have been different if the U.S. had not pushed BP 'at every step of the way' to do things faster and more comprehensively.

Yesterday it was reported that BP faced $ 20billion of penalties because of the leak but it is unclear if this figure will stand.