An earlier-this-month suggestion by an Obama administration team, led by the Interior Department and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that the long-term impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the coastline and fisheries might not be as bad as once feared, has come under additional fire from scientists.

The government researchers had said that their findings show that most of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has disappeared. The government research team further elaborated that approximately 75 percent of the 4.9 million barrels released from the ruptured well had either been cleaned up or had broken down; and much of the remaining oil was a light sheen at or near the surface or had washed ashore.

However, on the basis of research which shows that oxygen levels in the Gulf are inconsistent with rapid degradation of oil by petroleum-eating microbes, Florida State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald – who used satellite imagery to measure oil slicks - will likely inform a US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Thursday that the administration’s findings about oil-cleanup were misleading.

According to MacDonald’s prepared testimony - which contradicts the government’s far-too-optimistic forecasts about the speed at which dispersed oil will biodegrade -, only 10 percent of leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico was “actually removed from the ocean.’ 

Meanwhile, defending the government’s estimates, the NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said on Wednesday: “We stand by the calculations that we released recently.”