Oil Spill - Florida, Cuba, Bahamas & Eastern Seaboard Prospects, Deep Horizon Blowout

[ricki]

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

[ricki]

Some tar balls arrive at Pensacola in Panhandle of Florida. Just heard on NBC that the oil sheen is about nine miles offshore currently.

"Cap collects some Gulf oil; crude washes into Fla.
By MELISSA NELSON and JAY REEVES (AP) – 35 minutes ago
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — Waves of gooey tar balls crashed into the white sands of the Florida Panhandle on Friday as BP engineers adjusted a sophisticated cap over the Gulf oil gusher, trying to collect the crude now fouling four states.

Even though the inverted funnel-like device was set over the leak late Thursday, crude continued to spew into the sea in the nation's worst oil spill. Engineers hoped to close several open vents on the cap throughout the day in the latest attempt to contain the oil.
As they worked on the system underwater, the effect of the BP spill was widely seen. Swimmers at Pensacola Beach rushed out of the water after wading into the mess while children played with it on the shore and others inspected the clumps with fascination, some taking pictures. Brown pelicans coated in chocolate syrup-like oil flailed and struggled in the surf on a Louisiana island, where the beached was stained in hues of rust and crimson, much like the color of drying blood.

"In Revelations, it says the water will turn to blood. That's what it looks like out here — like the Gulf is bleeding," said P.J. Hahn, director of coastal zone management for Plaquemines Parish as he kneeled down to take a picture of an oil-coated feather. "This is going to choke the life out of everything.""


http://www.sun-sentinel.com

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Jeff Masters speculates on where to from here with regard to the spill:

"Onshore winds out of the south, southwest, or west are expected to blow over the northern Gulf of Mexico over through Tuesday, resulting in a continued threat of landfalling oil to Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle, according to the latest trajectory forecasts from NOAA and the State of Louisiana. The latest ocean current forecasts from the NOAA HYCOM model show that these winds will generate a 0.5 mph current flowing from west to east along the Florida Panhandle coast Sunday through Tuesday. If this current develops as predicted, it will be capable of bringing light amounts of oil as far east as Panama City, Florida, by Wednesday. Long range surface wind forecasts from the GFS model for the period 8 - 14 days from now predict a return to a southeasterly wind regime, which would bring the oil back over Louisiana by mid-June. If you spot oil, send in your report to http://www.gulfcoastspill.com/, whose mission is to help the Gulf Coast recovery by creating a daily record of the oil spill.

Long range oil spill outlook
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) issued a press release yesterday showing 4-month model runs (Figure 1) of where the Deepwater Horizon oil spill might go. The model runs show that given typical ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico, we can expect the oil to eventually affect most of the Florida Panhandle, Keys, and Florida East Coast, as well as coastal areas of South Carolina and North Carolina. Very little oil makes it to the West Florida "Forbidden Zone", where offshore-moving surface currents dominate. The oil may eventually affect three foreign countries: Mexico along the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cuba near Havana, and the Bahamas in the Bimini Islands and along the western side of Grand Bahama Island. Once oil does get into the Loop Current, it will probably reach the coasts of France, Spain, and Portugal in about a year. The oil will be too dilute by then to be noticeable, though."
Continued at:
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html


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It has to go somewhere, here is what one model shows. This mistake could go a very long way impacting a tremendous area.

"Ocean currents likely to carry oil along Atlantic coast
June 03, 2010
BOULDER—A detailed computer modeling study released today indicates that oil from the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico might soon extend along thousands of miles of the Atlantic coast and open ocean as early as this summer. The modeling results are captured in a series of dramatic animations produced by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and collaborators.
"Oil has been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico since April 20 from a blown-out undersea well, the result of an explosion and fire on an oil rig. The spill is located in a relatively stagnant area of the Gulf, and the oil so far has remained relatively confined near the Louisiana and Alabama coastlines, although there have been reports of small amounts in the Loop Current.

The model simulations show that a liquid released in the surface ocean at the spill site is likely to slowly spread as it is mixed by the ocean currents until it is entrained in the Loop Current. At that point, speeds pick up to about 40 miles per day, and when the liquid enters the Atlantic’s Gulf Stream it can travel at speeds up to about 100 miles per day, or 3,000 miles per month.""

Continued at: http://www2.ucar.edu/news/ocean-curr...atlantic-coast

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