After the oil spill

In my area of the world, grandparents, elders, and all those who hold by their tradition to watch nature's cycles closely- as if our lives depend on them- have mostly noticed the departure of migratory birds South for the winter. South into the waiting arms of one of the 21st centuries greatest environmental disasters. Where will the birds land and what will they eat while the sea (back to normal according to BP) still contains tons of oil beneath its inviting and deceiving surface?

Scientists and those who have lived in coastal areas all their life fear that because of this spill, the sea is dying from the bottom up. As oil sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it kills the microplankton, bacterial cultures, and endless and diverse forms of life which sustain the ocean as we know it-- and the ocean sustains human life as we know it. Even before this disaster, the ocean was in terrible trouble. When the fish are so polluted they can barely even survive living in these water I wonder what the people of the coasts will eat? When the plankton and seaweed affected by this spill die and stop breathing oxygen into our planet I wonder if people will breathe as clearly as they once did? And what of the polluted waters, the rashes, the toxins already found in Americans' blood who are unfortunate enough to live in what was once paradise?

When are we as a society going to get serious about not just stopping the damage we are causing to the sustainer of our lives and very existance, our mother Earth, and actually begin to repair the damage we have already done?