As President Obama faced criticisms, on Saturday, for vacationing instead of fixing the Gulf problem, good news emerged from BP. The leak has been plugged.Although it is not a permanent fix and it has been in place for only two days, oil has stopped spilling into the Gulf. Although authorities placed the plug under a further day of testing and warned the public against being too optimistic, the temporary fix appeared to be working. Although the prognosis for recovery has been fixed at several months to several years, signs of progress started appearing almost immediately. The coastal part of Alabama experienced an influx of tourists; the hotels were filling up and the sea was full of swimmers as there were little or no tar balls in sight. Fishing also made a strong reappearance with piers filling up and boats setting off. Although a fair amount of Louisiana’s recreational waters were reopened, more than a third are still off limits to the public.The signs of improvement have been quite encouraging. Coast Guard flyovers revealed that the amount of oil that was visible to the naked eye was discernibly different to that of the previous day. The oil will be released back into the water after the testing period, but that will be in a controlled amount so that ships could harvest it. This will be done to relieve the pressure on the cap. In the meantime two separate relief wells are being dug to take the place of the temporary cap. Once they are completed and are online, the cap will be finally sealed.
