Oil spill 'already damaging deep sea ecosystem'

As Americans anxiously waited for a slick in the Gulf of Mexico to wash up along the coast, globules of oil were already falling to the bottom of the sea, where they threatened virtually every link in the ocean food chain, from plankton to fish on dinner tables everywhere.

Meanwhile, a giant concrete-and-steel box seen as the best short-term solution to bottling up the disastrous oil was loaded onto a boat and the 100-ton contraption began its journey to the leak site about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.