USCG goes on record, acknowledges oil slick has intersected Loop Current:
"Part of the giant oil spill in the Gulf has entered the Loop Current and is headed for the Florida Keys, a Coast Guard official warned Florida members of Congress on Wednesday morning.
The tar balls found in the Keys this week are unrelated to the spill, said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft.
But he said Floridians should expect to see tar balls from the spill in another week or two. Asked whether there is anything that can be done to stop the spill from coming ashore in South Florida, Zukunft said: “It would take an act of God. That technology does not exist.” He said the government is rounding up more floating boom to try to help protect the shores. But oil slicks can flow under the booms in heavy seas.
Zukunft suggested setting up two lines of booms while trying to skim oil from the surface. The best way to fend off the slick, Zukunft said, is to apply chemical dispersants at the source of the spill. He said dispersants should not be used near the Keys because of its damaging effects on coral reefs.
The admiral appeared before a meeting of the Florida delegation, full of members concerned about the slick’s impact on recreational boating, fishing and tourism. Scientists have warned since Monday that the slick had entered the current, but the Coast Guard had denied it. “The Loop current has intersected with the Southern-most part of that slick,” Zukunft acknowledged on Wednesday.
It will likely be a week or more before the slick arrives at the southern tip of the state, he said. The tar balls already found in the Keys and tested in a lab could not possibly have come from the spill, he said. But he said the slick will show up in the form of tar balls on beaches when it does arrive.The Loop Current carries debris of all kinds from the northern Gulf all the way to the Gulf Stream that runs along the shores of southeast Florida and up the Eastern Seaboard.
Zukunft said it likely will be August before the damaged well in the Gulf is sealed and the spill is stopped.** “We will never recover all that oil, 100 percent, at sea,” he said. “We will experience tar balls.”"
From:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news..._headed_f.html
** Note: By some estimates that could equate to 8.4 Million barrels or 350 Million gallons of crude released to the ocean, plus or minus 70 Million gallons. HOPEFULLY, some of the efforts to diminish the flow will be significant in the next three months reducing this projection. What oil is released will be fair game for distribution by current forces and wild card factors introduced by tropical weather systems. This later factor could weigh significantly on the distribution, damage caused by and fate of components of the release.
USF model of oil plume relative to the Loop Current and coast of Florida out to May 23, 2010.
From:
http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~liu/Drif...atest_roms.htm