GuLF Study GuLF Study The GuLF Study, or Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study, is a five-year research project examining the human-health consequences of the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill in April 2010. The spill followed an explosion on a drilling rig leased by BP, the British oil company, and led to the release of over four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, 48 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the United States. The study was set up in June that year by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is being conducted by the National Institute of
Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill silts and sands onshore. On 26 May 2011, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality extended the state of emergency related to the spill. In April 2012, oil was found dotting of Louisiana's coast. As of December 2012, of coastline remain subject to evaluation and/or cleanup operations. On 15 May 2010, researchers from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, aboard the research vessel "RV Pelican", identified oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as long, wide and thick in spots. The shallowest oil plume the group detected was at about ,