Guardian "The fact is that 50% to 75% of the material that came out of the well is still in the water. It's just in a dissolved or dispersed form."
Susan Shaw, a marine toxicologist and director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, said the White House had been too quick to declare the oil was gone. "The blanket statement that the public understood is that most of the oil has disappeared. That is not true.
A 8 year old would explain that you take the amount you spilled minus the amount you actually recovered... would equal the amount still in the environment.
Think the Gulf Spill Is Bad? Wait Until the Next Disaster