Oil in the keys already????

[Ryank]

I flew to Houston today and the size of the oil slick from 30k feet was amazing. "Humongous" does nothing to describe how vast an area of ocean this slick covers. It is also all over the beaches covering dozens of miles of coastline that I was able to see. I feel the media has been totaly covering up (probably as ordered by our Government) the severity of this. I understand the blow to Tourism will be catastrophic, not to mention the blow to our ecology.
This post from Spearboard only confirms my fears. I have been told the same by many dive shop owners in that area, as what you are about to see if you click on the link, that there is indeed oil showing up in MANY areas in the Fl keys already as a result of the loop current. Isn't it nice the media Sucks A$$. I guess there really is no freedom of the press or free speech.


http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=104954

[gofastsandman]

I`ll be taking my online Haz-Mat cert. soon. Sea Tow is organizing volunteers here in WPB. Our collective hearts are breaking.

GFS

[Greno]

Keys balls are ship oil from a bilge. I live in Mobile, Alabama and have worked in the oil field and have been performing remediation for the past decade, please don't listen to the tv about this. Louisiana is getting hammered, the rest of us on the gulf coast are just watching money being wasted with hundreds of people driving up and down the beach waiting for something that may never get here. We are all boomed off and ready to close off every inlet and we have had a total of about 2 gallons (actually less) of tar balls wash up on the beaches here. The media has killed tourism here and the beaches are as beatiful as ever. Yes our fishing is closed when you get 20-25 miles offshore, but there isn't any oil there either.

Pray for Louisiana, the rest of us are just like always.

Eric

[Ryank]

The keys balls may indeed be from a ships bilge, I am guessing you did not look at the pictures, these pictures are from marathon key, on the Atlantic side, This is Light sweet crude that has made it up thru the loop current.Where the leak is occurring some of the spill is going to move towards land in MS or LA,the rest will and has begun to get swept up in the loop current and is/ has begun landing in Florida. This is not tar balls from a ships bilge. The color of these slicks forming already is the same as LSC from the spill site. This is a oil slick over a mile long. Also some friends just commented the CG has found a slick over 5 miles long heading for the dry tortugas. (which will most likely become public at any time) This is not just speculation, this is reality. Fl may become worse effected then LA or MS or any of the other states due to the loop current situation. CNN and all the other media claims what the government tells them to.

[Blue_Heron]

The gulf oil spill is a huge mess, and BP should be held responsible for their failure to contain it. But don't lose heart, folks. Crude oil occurs naturally, and mother nature has ways of dealing with it. The Gulf is loaded with natural oil seeps. This spill has just dumped a lot more than usual over a much shorter period of time. So while the immediate situation is a gummy mess, I think in two years or less, you'll be hard pressed to find signs of lasting damage.
Dave

[Greno]

tar balls in keys do not match fingerprint of of from horizon. the loop current will spread it farther, but the action in the current will ultimately increase the rate of degredation. this incident has been blown way out of proportion and millions off resources wasted in places that will never see an impact from this. my wife is from jupiter and laughed because tar balls used to wash up on the beach very frequently when she was younger. it is an oil spill not the end of the world. the saddest part is everyone has forgotten the 11 people that died because their fishing might get hurt for a few months.

[NoBones]

WTF is the loop current??????
Been here my whole life!!!!
It's called "THE GULF STREAM"!!!
Frickin' liberal media dying for any disaster
they can latch on too, to promote doom and gloom!

OK, I feel better now got that of my chest.. [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Just my 2¢ worth!

See ya, Ken

[Greno]

we have always called it the loop current, the gulf stream is in the atlantic to me

[MasterBaiter]

Checking with friends in Marathon, this is all news to them. Fisherman and tree huggers and those inbetween were asked and not one heard or saw anything except the tar balls in Key West.

[MasterBaiter]

Just got this from a Charter boat Captain running a boat out of Marathon.
Tucker


We urge you NOT to subscribe to the media hysteria about the possible effect of the oil spill on the Florida Keys. Here's a news flash we just received...

NOAA's latest observations indicate that a small portion of the oil slick has reached the Loop Current in the form of light to very light sheens.

In the time it would take for oil to travel to the vicinity of the Florida Straits, any oil would be highly weathered and both the natural process of evaporation and the application of chemical dispersants would reduce the oil volume significantly.

However, the oil may get caught in a clockwise eddy in the middle of the gulf, and not be carried to the Florida Straits at all.

Oil entrained in the Loop Current would require persistent onshore winds or an eddy on the edge of the Loop Current for it to reach the Florida shoreline. If this were to occur, the weathered and diluted oil would likely appear in isolated locations in the form of tar balls.