The news out of the Gulf of Mexico doesn't look too bleak, according to preliminary reports here today at the semiannual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The researchers are quick to point out that the human toll of the BP oil spill — both financial and personal — has been devastating. But at least for now, they are seeing only limited environmental damage. Erik Cordes, a marine ecologist at Temple, said his first look at some deep sea-floor ecosystems was encouraging. Over the past decade, Cordes and his colleagues have studied deep marine communities in the gulf, including deep-water corals and unusual tubeworms that live near natural oil seeps.