Author’s note: I am sure a lot you have been following this. Even if you have, you may not have seen the flyover video in the article that is on my Examiner page. It is a birds-eye view of the size and scope of this slick and is truly frightening.
Excerpt:
How large is the oil slick approaching the shores of Gulf states? When will it wash up on the pristine beaches of the Florida panhandle? Is it large enough to hitch a ride on the Loop Current and travel around the Florida peninsula? Anyone following reports in the media should be uncertain, because the reports are unclear and sometimes contradictory.
Consider, for example, this chart from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (it is too large to post in this article). It tracks the movement of the oil slick from May 1 through May 6. The position and size of the oil slick in the chart on May 1 clearly does not match the NASA satellite photo taken the same day. The oil slick in the NOAA chart is much farther east and farther out to sea than the satellite image shows.
Further reports tend to add to the uncertainty, rather than clearing it up. The Houston Business Journal reported yesterday that “oil has washed ashore on the barrier islands near Louisiana for the first time.” The AFP reported the same.
Other reports have stated that oil washed ashore in Louisiana as early as April 30th, with AP photos clearly showing that.
So what are we to believe? How large is this oil slick and when will it wash up on the beaches of the Gulf states?
There is another uncertainty regarding the size of the oil slick and the amount of oil that is gushing into the Gulf. The Telegraph UK reported yesterday that “the well is currently spewing 5,000 barrels a day, or about 210,000 gallons, but that figure could reach 60,000 barrels a day, equivalent to 2.5 million gallons a day, if efforts to stop the leaks fail.” The figure was given in a briefing by executives from BP and Transocean, which owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig, to the Congress House Energy and Commerce Committee. The window between 210,000 and 2.5 million gallons of oil per day is a very large discrepancy.
Dr. Ian MacDonald at Florida State University produced a spill-size estimate based on aerial overflights taken on April 28. The bottom line: on April 28 there was a total of 8.9 million gallons floating on the surface of the Gulf. Based on his flow charts, that means the leak surpassed the quantity of oil that the Exxon Valdez spilled on May 1, and there are about 18.8 million gallons of oil floating on the Gulf of Mexico today. Keep in mind that it takes only one quart of oil to poison 250,000 gallons of seawater for all marine life.
The truth is, no one knows how much oil has already leaked into the Gulf, and no one knows how much will before the well is capped or a relief well is drilled to stop the flow. Stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf may take up to three months, and the results of efforts to cap the leak yesterday are not yet certain.
Alabama Governor Bob Riley said favorable weather conditions meant the response effort would have a few more days to try to reduce the slick and mitigate its impact on the shore. He said: “If we can get three or four days I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape.” US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said: “We do have the gift of time. It’s a gift of a little bit of time.”
According to oceanographers, marine biologists and ecologists, time has already run out for much of marine life in the Gulf. Not only will shallow water animals be poisoned by the oil slick, but also hail-sized droplets of oil that coagulate like tarballs will fall to the bottom of the sea. They will be consumed by smaller organisms and passed up the food chain, resulting in death throughout the entire Gulf ecosystem.
While this giant oil slick has not yet washed up on the beaches of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, it is not a question of if, but when. And the devasting effect on marine life is even more of a certainty, but no one will really know how bad it is until it hits the shores.
Read more, get links and view a flyover of the oil slick here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d7-Contradictory-reports-about-size-and-movement-of-oil-slick-leave-FL-residents-uncertain