A fishing boat spreads an oil dispersant

The Gulf of Mexico oil slick threatens disaster for the fragile US coast, causing clean-up efforts to focus on the best of a bad set of options: fight it there before it arrives here. An army of workers hired by British Petroleum, along with the US Coast Guard and local officials in Louisiana, have rushed to set out protective booms, spread dispersants and burn the oil when they can as it moves toward the shore. The strategy is to deal with the growing slick as much as possible before it laps into wetlands on Louisiana’s coast, where its effects could be catastrophic and cleaning it is infinitely more difficult if not impossible. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read )