Doug Shuttles, British Petroleum’s chief operating officer, went on the Today show Wednesday to deny government claims that massive oil plumes were polluting the ocean a thousand meters below the surface dozens of kilometers around the Gulf spill. But his argument may be mostly semantic—he also said the concentrations of oil were “very low” and that in the end the situation “may be down to how you define what a plume is.” The statement comes one day after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that University of South Florida researchers had conducted tests proving that the oil, an estimated 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day of which is spewing into the Gulf, is polluting far more then the surface of the ocean.