The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest accidental offshore oil spill in history. In the video below, Lisa DiPinto, a Senior Scientist at NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration, shares how NOAA went about the massive task of assessing the damage to the entire northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem—finding more than 1,300 miles of shoreline were oiled.
DiPinto tells how the team came together to collect the right data to evaluate the many impacts on the environment and our natural resources. The tools and methods developed during this assessment have significantly advanced our ability to understand oiling effects for spills moving forward and respond more rapidly.