In surprise news, oil isn't good for coral beds.

The first sentence of this article from AP says it all:

After months of laboratory work, scientists say they can definitively finger oil from BP's blown-out well as the culprit for the slow death of a once brightly colored deep-sea coral community in the Gulf of Mexico that is now brown and dull.

Well duh.  Proof that greater than 200 million gallons of spilled oil devastated the ecosystem?  Who.  Knew.

Report: Oil spill culprit for heavy toll on coral