Spill Meeting on Monday at the IGFA in Dania, FL to discuss impacts on Diving, fishing, tourism, marine properties on the SE Coast. Listed as for captains, crew, property owners, hotel and restaurant owners. Two marine scientists, various captains will be presenting. Oh, there is an attorney sponsor who will be presenting as well likely discussing law suit opportunities. This was on a link that Barbie put up.
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"Oil sheen closes in on Tortugas
Fishing is banned in parts of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary west of the Dry Tortugas, where an oil sheen was 100 miles away and closing in on the area, federal officials declared Wednesday. Nearly 38 percent of the Gulf of Mexico, or 88,502 square miles, is now closed to fishing because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said Roy Crabtree, the National Marine Fisheries Service's southeast regional director.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expanded its fishing ban in federal waters effective at 6 p.m. after projecting the sheen would be within 50 or 60 miles of the Tortugas by Friday, Crabtree said. A spawning area for grouper and snapper that includes the Tortugas Ecological Reserve South and Riley's Hump is now in the closed area, according to a satellite overlay of the closure coordinates. While fishing already was banned in the reserve because it is an environmentally protected area, Florida Keys-based commercial and recreational fishermen often fish just outside the reserve.
The closure comes at the height of the dolphin fishing season and as mutton snapper are congregating on the reef to spawn. "This is a very grave situation," said Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen's Association Executive Director Bill Kelly. Crabtree called for more sampling of water, fish and shellfish to see if they are being contaminated by oil, he said. "We need first-hand knowledge of what's going on," Crabtree said.
A Mote Marine Laboratory underwater drone has not uncovered any traces of oil in the Tortugas, spokeswoman Nadine Slimak said Wednesday. The drone, called Waldo, was brought back to Mote and substituted with a new one this week after it had problems navigating the currents. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist requested the U.S. Department of Commerce declare a federal fishery disaster for Florida on Wednesday, as an oil sheen and tar balls were within 10 miles of Pensacola beaches. Crist cited the impact on the state's fishing industry in his letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke."
More at:
http://keysnews.com/node/23778