Never Forget.

Here are a few reflections on that day and what it means for us now.

2 years later, fish sick near BP oil spill site (Businessweek):

"Some of the things I’ve seen over the past year or so I’ve never seen before," said Will Patterson, a marine biologist at the University of South Alabama and at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. "Things like fin rot, large open sores on fish, those were some of the more disturbing types of things we saw. Different changes in pigment, red snapper with large black streaks on them."

All of this has biologists—and many fishermen—worried.

BP oil spill disaster ‘not over’ (AFP):

Dead dolphins keep washing up on shore in unprecedented numbers. Oil-coated coral reefs are dying in the deepwater. Eyeless shrimp and crabs with holes in their shells are showing up in relatively empty fishing nets while killifish, a minnow-like fish at the base of the food chain, show signs of chemical poisoning.

And critics say offshore drilling safety and oversight remains woefully lacking.

AP photographer describes Gulf oil spill then, now (Seattle Times):

Two years later, I returned to Cat Island. The deterioration was shocking. The island had eroded and was much smaller. What was once mangrove so thick only a bird could enter was now black stumps sticking out of the sand. There were fewer pelicans, and they were nesting on bare earth, exposed to the next storm surge.

As I looked out across the water, I got a sick feeling. I thought this may all be gone soon, only a GPS coordinate in the Gulf and a story about what natural beauty was once here.