Volunteers of the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research and the International Bird Rescue Research Center run a facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana, where they clean birds covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. By November 2010, around 8,000 birds had been collected; 6,100 of those were dead.

Paths of oil-free water remain in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico from boats attempting to clean up the crude spill off the coast of Louisiana.

Two ships monitor a controlled burn from oil that was spilled from the wellhead. To aid in clean-up efforts, 5,300 vessels of opportunity were hired from around the area.

Aerial view of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. After the Deepwater Horizon platform sank on the 22nd, it began a spill that released over 60,000 barrels of crude oil every day for the next three months.

A ship cuts through a band of oil on the surface of the water. A substantial layer of oily sediment stretches for dozens of miles in all directions from the wellhead, suggesting that a large amount of oil did not evaporate or dissipate, but may have instead settled to the seafloor.

Oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon wellhead covers the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

A ship motors through oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico from. The spill caused extensive damage to the marine and wildlife habitats as well as the GulfÕs fishing and tourism industries.

Oil covers the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on the vicinity of BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill source.

Skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, sand-filled barricades along shorelines and dispersants were used in an attempt to protect hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands, and estuaries from the spreading oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 5 million barrels of crude oil, the gushing wellhead was capped on July 15th. The impact of the spill continues even after the well has been capped.

A C-130 plane sprays dispersant on oil leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. On May 20th, the Environmental Protection Agency told BP to find a dispersant less toxic than Corexit. Coast Guard overlooked the EPA, and granted BP 74 exemptions to use Corexit in a 48-day period. In all, 2 million gallons of Corexit were used, with the majority being pumped beneath the surface of the water.

Boats gather near remaining oil platforms near the site of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead, leaving oily wakes as they move through the polluted water. Nearly one third of all U.S. oil production comes from 3,500 such platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

A plume of smoke rises from a burn of collected oil. A total of 411 controlled burns were used to try rid the Gulf of the most visible surface oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon wellhead.

Oil released from the failed Deepwater Horizon wellhead rises up to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico amidst an offshore platform drilling a relief well.