It has been five years since the largest oil spill in United States history.

Eleven people were killed when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 21, 2010. At least 133 million gallons of crude oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.

About 16,000 miles of Gulf coastline were affected, including the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and northern Florida.

Researchers and environmental officials are still studying the spill's impact.

And although no oil washed up on Bay area beaches, an impact was felt locally.

"It doesn't it really doesn't seem like five years," said Rick Falkenstein, the general manager of the Hurricane restaurant in Pass-a-Grille. "But I remember five years ago we had to make some really tough decisions."

About six months after the disaster, his business and other locally started to feel the effects, Falkenstein said.

"It was obvious so much that some of our management team had to take a pay cut," he said. "A tremendous pay cut."

Long after the oil spill was capped, Falkenstein was still cutting employee hours and even laying off some as tourists stayed away from the local beaches.

"It was really close," he said of the restaurant possibly closing.

Ultimately, a judge ruled BP was responsible for the spill. Businesses throughout the gulf region received settlement money from BP.

Falkenstein said while he is happy the restaurant made it through the difficult period after the spill, the company is still waiting on funds from BP. He said his paperwork was long since been filed but no settlement funds have been received.

Meanwhile, researchers from the University of South Florida continue to analyze the area where the spill occurred.

"About ten percent of that oil still exists on the bottom of the ocean floor," said USF researcher Steven Murawski. "Clearly, that continues to have impacts, as does a bunch of oil near the beaches, salt marshes as well."

This week, BP announced a $134 million early restoration project - although only one location along the Gulf coast is in Florida.

It's a seagrass recovery project in the Santa Rosa sound in the Panhandle.