Capped oil well offers little instant relief to local businesses

BP has successfully installed and closed a 75-ton cap atop the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and for the first time in 85 days, oil has stopped flowing into the ocean. While this may come as a huge relief to many whose lives and livelihoods depend on the Gulf waters, some experts estimate that up to 184 million gallons of oil may have already contaminated the sea. (For a sense of scale, imagine one of the world’s largest super-massive cruise ships filled up to the brim with sticky crude oil. Now imagine another one, the exact same size, also filled to the brim with oil. That’s roughly 150 million gallons.)

We speak with Captain Danny Wray, owner and operator of Calmwater Charters in Grand Isle, Louisiana, to hear his take on the good news. Wray tells us that, even though he is excited to have the oil capped off, he is not sure that he can ever get his life back to normal.