CBS News spoke with Samantha Joye, UGA oceanographer, as she led an expedition to examine the seabed near the area of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which blew out four years ago. Joye and 22 scientists used a Navy research submarine to see how the area is doing after the oil spill.
“Four years ago there was nothing,” said Joye, the Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences in Franklin College’s marine sciences department. “I saw one crab in an eight-hour dive. It was gut-wrenching to go down there and see just nothing on the sea floor.”
Since then, Joye said, things have improved.
“Now, we saw eels and skates and a vampire squid, which I’d never seen before,” she said. “It means there’s a lot of food.”
Joye pointed out that sediment samples showed the mud contains an oily layer from the spill, which she worries could adversely affect marine life.
