Gulf of Mexico Foundation of its funding comes from corporations, including oil and gas companies. While the remaining, three-quarters comes from state and federal government grants. The foundation website provides the most prominent credit to oil and gas companies. Media and consumer advocacy groups question the Foundation's close and questionable ties to the oil and gas industry. After the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico starting in April 2010, Quenton Dokken, the organization's director was interviewed by the New York Times about the severity of the then ongoing oil spill. He was optimistic, saying: The sky is not falling. We've
Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill water in a "dissolved or dispersed form". On 16 August 2010, UGA scientists said their analysis of federal estimates show that 80% of the oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there. The Georgia team said "it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone". Oil began washing up on the beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore on 1 June 2010. By 4 June 2010, the spill had landed on of Louisiana's coast, had washed up along Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and was found for the