As the size of the disaster seems to shrink away to nothing, experts are saying that the oil is actually breaking up, and staying beneath the waves.

For a blood curdling two and a half months, oil was gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP’s damaged oil well. It pumped out somewhere in the vicinity of 200 million gallons of the black gold into the surrounding ecosystems. Along with the federal government, BP has gotten together an army of people to help deal with the mess. There just seems to be one problem – the oil seems to have gone AWOL.

At its most devastating levels last month, the area the oil covered was comparable to that of Kansas, however the spill has rapidly started to disappear, and it now only the size of New Hampshire.

Yesterday, reporters working for ABC News went out to look for themselves, and they didn’t see anything. Even when they flew out to the site of the rig this past Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was surprisingly no oil around.

“That oil is somewhere. It didn’t just disappear,” said Billy Nungesser, the Plaquemines Parish President.

One of the men in search of the black gold is Salvador Cepriano. Cepriano, a professional shrimper, has been attempting to scoop up some of the precious black stuff, but there just doesn’t seem to be any to scoop up.

“I think it is underneath the water. It’s in between the bottom and the top of the water,” Cepriano commented when asked about the strange phenomenon.

The federal government seems to be stumped as well, and has publicly admitted that finding the oil has become an issue.

“It is becoming a very elusive bunch of oil for us to find,” said Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander.

Skimmers are Scooping UP Less Crude:
Well, the math is right, and numbers rarely lie: a fortnight ago, the skimming boats scooped up around 25,000 barrels of oily water. This past Thursday, they only scooped up about 200 barrels.

Don’t break out the wine yet.. This does not mean that the oil which was pumped out over the past weeks is gone. There are still thousands of small patches of oil which are staying beneath the waves. Be that the case, experts have said that an amazing amount of the black gold has simply disappeared, apparently reabsorbed by the environment.

“[It’s] mother nature doing her job,” explained a professor of environmental studies at Louisiana State University, Ed Overton.

Scientists: The Oil in The Gulf is Breaking Up:
The lighter of the black gold started to break down when it first squirted from the pipes at high pressure, and then it was inundated with dispersants to help catalyze the process.

The oil that actually did make it to the surface of the ocean was deteriorated by 88 degree water, and then baked by 100 degree sun, chowed down by a bunch of microbes, and then ripped apart by the wind and waves in the area.. Quite a welcoming party huh?