Federal scientists today released the first rehabilitated sea turtles back into the Gulf of Mexico.

The 22 endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles had been found "moderately to heavily oiled" by the massive leak from the BP PLC well, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The turtles were cleaned and treated at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans and Gulf World in Panama City, Fla. NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco and retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen helped release the turtles about a mile off Cedar Key, Fla., calling it another sign of the rebound of the Gulf ecosystem.

"This is a wonderful day for all involved -- but especially for the turtles," Lubchenco said. And Allen called it "emblematic of us starting to look forward in the recovery."

But Lubchenco said she "remains concerned" about the conditions in the Gulf and the long-term effects on the ecosystem. NOAA scientists are continuing to track and monitor residual oil in the Gulf and assess damages.

Wildlife teams rescued about 500 turtles during the oil spill. About 350 of those turtles are still in rehabilitation facilities and will be released as they are given clean bills of health, according to NOAA. The Kemp's ridley turtle is one of five endangered sea turtle species in the Gulf.

No timeline to complete relief well

Federal officials are still assessing options and have no set timeline to complete the final stages of plugging the failed BP well, Allen said today.

Last weekend, Allen ordered BP to move forward with tests crucial to starting the "bottom kill," which involves drilling a relief well into the failed wellbore near the reservoir to fill it with cement and plug it for good. He said today that he is still awaiting the detailed assessments from engineers of the two different courses of action that the company might take to relieve pressure in the well and kill it for good.

"We will know when we have satisfied ourselves and we have removed any shadow of doubt," Allen told reporters in response to questions about when he would give the order to proceed.

Allen said he will not give timelines for when the final stages may move forward because the timing is subject to change. He said the pause is "nothing more than an overabundance of caution and doing our jobs."

The two options for relieving pressure are to replace the current blowout preventer with a new one or design a mechanism to attach to the existing blowout preventer.

Waxman, Stupak press BP on ad spending

Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pushing BP to reveal details of its spill-related marketing and advertising spending.

In a letter this week, Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) ask BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay for information about the oil giant's spending on advertisements since the April 20 disaster.

BP has been widely criticized for its image-related spending since the spill. Earlier this summer, President Obama berated the company for spending millions on an advertising campaign.

The Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats want information about BP's television, radio, Internet and print advertisements and the markets where they ran. The request follows an initial request from committee member Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.).

Group blasts U.S. estimate on oil danger

A coalition of Gulf Coast community activists says the federal government and BP are misrepresenting the amount of oil left to be cleaned up in the Gulf and the safety of seafood from the region.

The Gulf Coast Fund says more than 53 million gallons of oil remains in the Gulf of the 172 million gallons that spilled this summer. And the group is arguing that the public has not been accurately informed about the spill's effects.

"Just because the oil is no longer on the surface, it does not indicate that the area is healthy," Wilma Subra, a chemist, microbiologist and adviser to the group, said in a statement. "We've received reports from local residents all along the coast who continue to see oil on and off shore, as well as reports of hundreds of dead fish, crabs, birds, dolphins, and other sea life."

The group's accusation comes a day after scientists from the University of Georgia expressed their doubts about the findings of an Aug. 4 interagency report that said all but one-fourth of the spilled oil was accounted for. The scientists yesterday said that 79 percent of the oil has not yet been recovered and remains a threat to the ecosystem.

But Lubchenco today stood by her agency's numbers. She said the UGA report did not account for the oil recovered directly from the well and used "very, very low" estimates for how much oil evaporated.

"We stand by the calculations we released in our oil budget," Lubchenco said. But, she added, "We know that oil is out there. It is diluted. Dilute and dispersed does not mean benign."

The NOAA estimates found that about 74 percent of the oil had been captured, burned, skimmed, evaporated, dissolved or dispersed -- leaving about 26 percent of the oil onshore, on the water's surface, in the water column or buried in sand and sediments.

The topic is likely to come up at a hearing tomorrow in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy and Environment subpanel. The rare recess hearing is slated to discuss the government's efforts to account for the oil as well as the safety of seafood from the Gulf.

Administration officials head back to Gulf

In an effort to show it is still engaged in the region after the well has been plugged, top Obama administration officials are headed back to the Gulf Coast this week to tour areas affected by the spill and to oversee federal response efforts.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Lubchenco and Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley will travel to the Delta National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow in Venice, La. The parts of the refuge that were closed as a result of the spill are slated to be reopened Sunday.

The Interior Department agency tasked with overseeing offshore oil and gas drilling has meanwhile launched an online and telephone hot line service for reporting ethics problems.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said today that the new hot line and a recently created investigative unit within the troubled agency represent "critical steps in our work to reform this agency."

Click here to read Waxman and Stupak's letter to McKay.