system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are ocean oil spills cleaned up?

Over the weekend, Southern California had at least 120,000 gallons of oil spilled from an offshore pipeline. How do response services go about cleaning up so much oil from the environment?
gpt
A whole bunch of ways. They contain it with booms (floating barriers) and suck it up. They put what's basically dish soap on it to break it down so it isn't so it's less clumpy and disperses easier. Sometimes they'll set it on fire since the residue is less harmful than the slick and they may not be able to contain it before it spreads out. 

For a lot of it though, they don't really do anything. They try, but if the spill starts really deep it may form underwater "plumes" that we can't get to. Some of it will get away from the spill area and escape the booms, sometimes rough seas or wind will spread it out super fast. This oil tends to wash up on shores eventually, the general hope is that it spreads itself so thin before then than it doesn't have much impact. There's an expression in environmental science "the solution to pollution is dilution". Take anything harmful and mix it in with enough seawater and it becomes nearly harmless. There are naturally occuring oil leaks under the sea, there's a TON of small oil leaks from sunken ships, and we really don't notice because it's so diluted.