Every little bit helps and when it comes to removing oil from water, wool has been shown to soak up 40 times its weight in oil, according to an online BBC News magazine article.

Wools of New Zealand put out a call that was answered by some of its U.S. carpet manufacturer partners to donate wool waste for use in the Gulf coast oil spill clean-up efforts. J. Mish, Woolshire, Woolen Resources and Creative Accents have all shipped wool waste material to Matter of Trust (matteroftrust.org), an organization that is warehousing the fiber and making them into booms.  

“Wool is a highly efficient oil adsorbent (meaning the oil clings to the many tiny scales on every strand)," says Elise Demboski, executive director of Wools of New Zealand in North America. “It is natural, biodegradable, hydrophobic, buoyant and has large retaining capacity. This makes it much more effective for use in booms then typical polypropylene fillers.”

Source Wools of NZ