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 in August 2010. USF's David Hollander remarked, "Oil's presence on the ocean floor didn't diminish with time; it grew" and he pointed out, "the layer is distributed very widely," radiating far from the wellhead. In 2013, some scientists at the "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference" said that as much as one-third of the oil may have been mixed with deep ocean sediments and dragged to the bottom of the ocean floor where it remains, risking damage to ecosystems and commercial fisheries. Oil at or near the site of the spill following well closure has suggested to