The cons of using dispersants are their toxicity to marine environment. Dispersants are also less effective on heavy oils. Dispersants result to oil sinking into the water column from the surface hence this spreads the effect of pollution. Advantages of dispersants are they reduce oil pollution impact onshore and also reduce its risks to marine animals with furs or plumage.
Advantages of using bacteria are that they consume the oil until no residue is left. The bacteria are not toxic like dispersants and reduce in number when the oil pollutant is degraded. Cons of bacteria are that they are unable to break down particular hydrocarbons; they are slow in degrading the oil and are only particularly effective in finishing off oil residue rather than cleaning up large oil spills.