Ecologist: The dispersant used in the Deepwater Horizon clean-up appears to be more toxic to corals than crude oil, writes Danielle M DeLeo. It also increases the concentration of oil in seawater, leading to higher, more toxic exposures of oil components when they come into contact with corals and other marine organisms.
Corals exposed to higher concentrations of dispersant, alone or mixed with oil, had the greatest health declines. In some cases the corals even appeared to do best in the oil-only treatments....