Originally Posted by ottopottomouse

It's easy to apply something like that to a tiny amount of water+oil in a small contained space but saying you could clear up an oil slick the same way you can clear up a bowl of water is overly simplistic.

Now scale it up to being in the sea with currents moving the oil about plus the amount of hay you would need - which is needed for winter livestock food - plus what are you going to do with all the oily hay if you manage to get it back out of the sea again.