Reply #124: This is not a situation that has occured in thousands of years though

[TZ]

The environment now is in no way shape or form like it was years and years ago. My point is, that we have had a large scale leak of a toxic chemical into an environment that hasn't dealt with something like this for ages..While some life forms, like the micro organisms who eat oil are better adapted than others, its still not likely that ANY organism can deal with such a shocking change without incredible stress. Like forest fires and volcanos....Environments do recover but it takes a long time...And again, this is not really a naturally occuring event.
Plus, lets remember that even if the oil can't be detected, that doesn't mean its not there. It may be like a virus, still there but hidden from our our detection methods.