Local scientists are studying the long-term effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s part of an international research project. It’s been six years since more than three-million barrels of oil poured into the gulf.
Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota is one of 19 partners examining how the petroleum affected marine life. Dana Wetzel with Mote said her team wants to see if the oil changed future generations of fish.
"We have the ability to breed those next generation fish and see do we have any complications with reproduction and is there some sort of geno-toxicity that's translating into the offspring of those fish," she said.
Wetzel said it will take a couple years to see any results. But she hopes their work tells the story of what really happened during the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
