"This was not a decision that was made lightly," said US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry.

Landry told reporters that the approval was only granted after a team of experts analyzed the results of three tests of subsea dispersant use.

Environmentalists, scientists and fisherman have raised concerns that the dispersants could be creating a toxic soup in critical habitats and simply shifting the damage from the oil out of sight.

"It's a series of tradeoffs," Landry acknowledged.

"Our focus in this response is to respond to what's out there and fight this spill as far offshore as possible."

More than 517,000 gallons of dispersants have already been sprayed on the surface of the massive slick which has been growing by the day since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22 after a huge explosion.

For the past two weeks a US federal agency has conservatively estimated the leak at some 210,000 gallons per day, but scientists who analyzed recently released video showing the oil spewing from the busted pipe say as much as 2.9 million gallons could be pumping uncontrolled into the Gulf every day.

The dispersant effort is meant to break down the oil so that over time, the slick is reduced to smaller particles that biodegrade instead of being left as chunky, thick globs that can choke both wildlife and vegetation.

Injecting dispersants directly into the plume of oil gushing out of a ruptured pipe on the seabed "might be a better option" because it "requires less by volume than what you might use on the surface," Landry said.

"We're really trying to minimize the impact on the environment as much as possible," she said.

Crews have also attacked the growing slick with controlled burns and have skimmed more than six million gallons of oily water off the surface.

Those operations are dependent upon calm seas, whereas the robots used to inject the dispersants into the plume can work in rough weather.

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