BP’s Macondo oil well is dead. So are a lot of other things.

It only took five months.

Yesterday, the US government officially declared BP’s Macondo oil well “effectively dead”. Reports the New York Times:

“We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” Adm. Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard officer who leads the federal spill response, said in a statement. The well, he said, “poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico”.

Here’s a list of other things declared dead as a result of the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent oil spill (53,000 barrels a day before the well was capped):

• 11 men.
• 3902 birds (as of August 10), and counting.
• 517 endangered sea turtles.
• 71 marine mammals, mostly dolphins.
• The Gulf’s fishing industry. In May a fisheries disaster was called for the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Initial cost estimates to the fishing industry were $2.5 billion. A fishing ban still covers one third of the Gulf. On August 31, a Boston lab said it found dispersant in a seafood sample taken near Biloxi, Miss., almost a month after BP said it had stopped using the chemical.
• One unidentified reptile.
• The tourism industry. Visitors along the Gulf coast spent in excess of $34 billion in 2008, sustaining 400,000 jobs. According to an Oxford Economics report commissioned by the US Travel Association, current indicators show double-digit declines in plans to travel to the region. (Estimates over a three-year period could exceed $23 billion).
• BP’s reputation. According to a recent Search Engine Watch article, in July BP spent near $1 million a month in spend between Google AdWords and YouTube advertising. BP also contracted for $50 million worth of television advertising and kept up a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and Flickr profile.

But no amount of PR spend can help remove this stain.