A tarball, bottom right, stands out amongst shells as Kim Palmer, Leisa Reeves, Janie Stokes and Yvonne Endsley of Knoxville, Tenn., comb the white sand beach looking for shells at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Ala., Friday, April 20, 2012. Two years earlier, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was just beginning, leaving an uncertain future for what its toll on the environment and tourism would be. Tourism numbers declined in the first few months, but have since rebounded strongly. This particular stretch of beach, which was coated with oil at least once during the spill, now showed only signs of a few tarballs scattered in with shells.