The size of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is hard to conceive. Just one reported oil slick is 10 miles long and four miles wide. That single oil slick is bigger than many Caribbean islands. It now has been reported that a million gallons of oil have been released each day for the past several weeks. Fishing areas off the Louisiana coast already have been affected. Louisiana's shrimp industry already is shut down. As of May 18, fishing has been banned in 19% of the Gulf of Mexico due to the oil spill. The whitest sand beaches in the world already are lined with oil balls. Some predict that the oil slick will make its way into the Gulf Stream and then impact the East Coast. The initial explosion itself caused a massive loss with the loss of numerous lives, dozens injured, and the total loss of a major oil drilling platform.

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The above article is reprinted from the June 2010 edition of Risk Management Magazine.