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

[ricki]

An update from Jeff Masters:

Long-range prospects for oil to enter the Loop Current and hit the Keys

Posted by: JeffMasters, 3:21 PM GMT on May 06, 2010
The oil slick from the April 20 explosion and blowout of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon is moving little, thanks to the light winds of 10 knots or less that have affected the northern Gulf of Mexico over the past few days. According to the latest NWS marine forecast, winds will remain light through Saturday, which should result in little transport of the oil slick. The latest trajectory forecast from the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration continues to show that the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Chandeleur Islands will be the only land areas affected by the spill over the next two days.

On Sunday, the winds will begin increasing and shifting to the southeast. The latest run of the GFS model shows that this will be a week-long period of southeast winds, with wind speeds at times reaching 20 - 25 knots. These winds will threaten to bring oil to a large portion of the Louisiana coast, including regions of the central Louisiana coast west of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Mississippi and Alabama coasts will also be at risk next week, but the risk to the Florida Panhandle is lower.

A major concern with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the possibility for the oil to move southwards and become entrained into the mighty Gulf of Mexico Loop Current, which would rapidly transport the oil through the Florida Keys, impacting northwest Cuba, South Florida, the western Bahamas, and the U.S. East Coast all the way to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. However, there is no immediate danger of this happening. The latest forecast of Gulf currents from the NOAA HYCOM model (see also this alternative view of the HYCOM ocean current forecast) indicate that the currents will not be favorable for pulling any oil southwards into the Loop Current over the next five days. Oil will have to travel approximately 100 miles to the south-southeast to get entrained into the Loop Current, and we probably would need a 2+ day period of strong winds out of the north for this to happen. The long-range GFS model indicates that the earliest this might happen is 10+ days from now. As summer gets closer, the incidence of cold fronts making it far enough south to bring an extended period of offshore northerly winds to the Gulf of Mexico decreases. I think there is a 40% chance that the next cold front capable of pushing oil into the Loop Current will arrive by the end of June. However, I think it is more likely that the next such front will not arrive until October, when fall comes.

That makes a tropical storm or hurricane as perhaps the most likely weather event to push oil into the Loop Current over the next few months. A tropical storm hitting the Panhandle of Florida would do the trick, by bringing northerly winds over the oil spill location, thanks to the counter-clockwise flow of air around the storm. Looking ahead to June, June tropical storms tend to form in the Gulf of Mexico, and we've been averaging one June storm every two years since 1995. This year, the odds of a June Gulf of Mexico storm are probably a little lower than usual. While Gulf of Mexico sea surface temperatures are near average, wind shear from our lingering El Niño will probably be above average. Since 1995, there have been three June tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico that have followed a track capable of pushing oil into the Loop Current. These storms were Hurricane Allison of 1995, Tropical Storm Allison of 2001, and Tropical Storm Arlene of 2005. Taking into account all these factors, I'll give a 20% chance that we'll get a June tropical storm capable of transporting oil into the Loop Current."
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Jef...?entrynum=1475


A USF plume transport model:



The red, warmer waters below the release represents the loop current.

There is a time animated version of the model display at:
http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~liu/Drif...atest_roms.htm


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[ricki]

More on possible outcomes to the Keys and east coast mainland from National Geographic. Hope it doesn't come to this but it might. It really seems to depend on how long oil is allowed to continue to pump into the Gulf and prevailing wind patterns. If this had happened a couple of months ago while strong cold fronts were still passing, the Loop Current may well have transported a lot of crude. With the seasonal easterly winds it may not happen as soon. Of course with tropical systems over the summer, this could change.

"Gulf Oil Spill Could Reach East Coast Beaches
....

"If oil gets swept up by the Loop Current, the crude should take about ten more days to hit the Florida Keys, Roffer said.

Spilled oil can be eaten and digested by animals, chemically altered by sunlight, or broken into different-size droplets by winds and currents—among other "weathering" processes that can change the oil's buoyancy as it travels.

If it's picked up by the Loop Current, the tarlike, smelly oil won't have weathered enough to lose its noxious properties by the time it reaches Florida.

The floating oil could get pulled into inlets and harbors along the peninsula, where it would settle into the mangrove forests that are nurseries for many species of sea life, Roffer pointed out.

"You can't go to every mangrove and clean off every root from the oil," he said.

As oil travels farther north via the Gulf Stream, weathering would cause the crude to sink deeper into the water column, he added, further complicating cleanup. (Related: "Gulf Oil Spill Fight Turns to Chemicals.")"


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...91_600x450.jpg

Continued at: http://s.ngeo.com/wpf/media-live/pho...66_600x450.jpg

[ricki]

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

[ricki]

Regarding current conditions in the Florida Keys and Mainland, they're FANTASTIC, warm sunny and the water's great! Canceling reservations based on current conditions would be a mistake, leaving more Florida for those that do go to enjoy.

that said on to news updates ...

"A small portion of oil from the BP spill could reach the Florida Keys within 10 days, although the bulk of the massive slick will remain in the Gulf of Mexico for the immediate future, federal authorities said Wednesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said "light to very light sheens" had been picked up by the loop current, which conveys water from the Gulf along the Keys and up the southeast Florida coast.

The possibility of a massive delivery of oil via the loop current has led to meetings among emergency officials in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, as they plan how to protect beaches, wildlife and the tourist industry. But the small amount of oil picked up so far is unlikely to cause much harm to South Florida, authorities said. Much of it will evaporate along the way, and it might get caught up in a clockwise eddy that would prevent it from even leaving the Gulf, according to NOAA.

"That oil is going to move slowly with the loop current, and we actually expect most of that to dissipate or probably degrade or weather before it actually comes close to threatening the South Florida area and the Straits of Florida," said Charlie Henry, scientific support coordinator for the oil spill for NOAA, at a news conference in Robert, La.

The bulk of the oil remains well to the northwest. If the current reached up and caught that oil, the outlook for South Florida would be much worse. But at this point, officials said, the immediate danger to South Florida is minimal. Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said Wednesday that he did not foresee a major environmental impact from the oil.

By the time it reaches South Florida, much of it will have evaporated and what's left of it will have degraded and congealed into less toxic tar balls, he said. "When you look at the length of transport of the oil when it goes through the loop current, the expectation is that mostly it's going to be tar balls, which shouldn't be a significant impact generally," he said. "These are things that can actually be hand-picked up."


COMMENT: Not if they clog up in the prop roots of mangroves or adhere to seagrass at lower tides. Weathering and characteristics of tar balls may differ.


"They are significantly less toxic at that stage," he said. "I don't want to go to the extent of saying they are innocuous. They're not. They actually have an impact. Turtles will try to eat tar balls, which is obviously not a healthy thing for marine turtles. But it would not have a significant impact of the kind currently being experienced in Louisiana." Sole, who was in Washington on Wednesday for a meeting on the Everglades, does not foresee precautionary measures to protect the Everglades. "You can't boom against tar balls," he said. "Tar balls go underneath the boom, around the boom easily. It's really not something that you can take oil-spill precautionary measures."


COMMENT: Not good news about booming off tar balls. If large quantities make it to the Keys, they could well foul mangroves along the Straits side of the Keys and worse be vacuumed into Florida Bay and the abundant estuarine areas there by tides and local winds. Depending on the consistency, softness of tar balls and response to mechanical pressures, they may be more or less of a problem. If they readily break open, less weathered petroleum will be exposed to air and water creating other issues. "

Complete article at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/pal...,2784720.story


and


"Efforts spring up to protect Florida Keys

KEY WEST -- With the Gulf of Mexico's massive oil spill now in an ocean current that could bring it to Florida's East Coast, 74-year-old Bobby Kieber felt it was time to act.
On Wednesday he went to Florida Keys Community College and plunked down $575 for a class to get him certified on how to do a coastal cleanup.
``I've lived here for 50 years and I make a living off the water,'' said Kieber, who makes his living sailing yachts between the Keys and the Caribbean.
``We're all doing what we can to stop this. When they need me, I'll be ready.''
Kieber was one of about 30 Keys residents who began the three-day Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response course to achieve a technician level -- a standard set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA. There are other ways to contribute as well, and for free, environmentalists say. Volunteers can get trained on the spot and help clean up Sunshine State shorelines. The idea is to clear the shores of ordinary debris that can become hazardous once the oil hits it.

All training emphasizes that volunteers don't touch hazardous waste -- and tar balls are hazardous material -- but instead alert hazmat teams to handle it. ``Preemptively removing artificial debris from the shoreline of the preserve will reduce potential impacts from oil, and it is good for the environment in any event,'' the Nature Conservancy of Florida said in a statement."

"Meantime, the nonprofit Green Living Energy Education has divided up the Keys into a Coast Watch map that offers a grid at www.KeysSpill.com where trained volunteers can pick a portion of beach to clean, plus a coastal cleanup checklist and other critical information. The spill scare has put a spotlight on the grass-roots effort to the protect the Keys, said Dan Robey, a Key Largo author and environmental activist who created the site to mobilize local volunteers. ``People have adopted shores from the Upper Keys down to Key West,'' he said, noting: ``It's taken off way beyond what we've expected.''

About 500 people volunteered Tuesday, the day the tar ball discovery was publicized. In all, he said, 2,000 have volunteered. Hundreds of the volunteers include boat owners with large vessels that could be used to help lay booms or send out skimmers in the event that a slick of oil makes it down to the Keys, he said. But before boat owners can take on such work, they have to receive certification in a hazardous materials course."

Complete article at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/2...otect-the.html

[Danimal8199]

So word on the street is that a giant oil spill exists and is predicted to bring oil to the keys. 20 tar balls happen to wash up in an area expected to get hit by oil yet these are unrelated? I'm not buying this one...

[ricki]

Lots of oil in the ocean, finger printing crude is usually fairly easy to do as well. Any reports of rafts of tar balls off the Keys or new reports of tar balls on the beach? Seems like it is a matter of time but a lot depends on what quantity makes it into the Straits along, consistency of it and local weather conditions.

and

"Loop Current might swing west, lessen Keys oil threat

With Monroe County newly added to Florida's list of areas under a state of emergency because of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Florida Keys residents can do little but watch the meandering of the Loop Current.

But some good news: Oceanography researchers at the University of South Florida told the Tampa Tribune Friday that the Loop Current that would carry oil or tar down to the Keys could be shifting to the west, which could potentially direct the spill away from the Keys. Chuamin Hu, a UCF oceanography associate professor, called the perceived shift "absolutely good news for the Florida Keys. But that's not a 100 percent certainty. It's a possibility."

Earlier this week, experts concluded that some oil from the month-old spill had entered the Loop Current, which normally circulates through the Gulf of Mexico. The current tends to carry gulf water down the state's west coast to the Florida Straits, which run eastward past the Florida Keys. A "tendril" of oil apparently had become caught in the outer bands of the current, which means some oil could reach Keys waters in days. Tar balls were found at seven locations in the Lower Keys Monday and Tuesday -- and since then some have been found as north as Islamorada -- but tests conducted at a U.S. Coast Guard laboratory concluded the chemical makeup of the Lower Keys balls proves they are not from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Information on the ones found in Islamorada wasn't available. However, tar balls similar to those could be the most visible sign of the spilled oil reaching the Keys, officials acknowledged.

Some businesses have reported cancellations. The Key West Chamber of Commerce launched a survey on Friday asking how the spill has affected local businesses. The "Deepwater Horizon oil spill has created uncertainty in the minds of potential visitors," the chamber says. Islamorada offshore charter captain Larry Wren said one customer canceled his booked motel for a July trip and changed his fishing reservation "from a definite to a maybe," depending on the spill situation.

"Another customer called to ask if we were still going out" Friday, Wren said. "I told him everything is fine." "There is definite worry about there" on local fishing docks, Wren said. "We were already impacted this year by the economy, and now this comes along. It's craziness.""

Complete article at:
http://www.keysnet.com/2010/05/22/22...wing-west.html

[ricki]

"Oil stays away from South Florida for now

South Florida has gained a temporary reprieve from the danger of globs of oil arriving from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the state's top environmental official.
Michael Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said that two disruptions in the loop current, which leads from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf Stream off the southeast Florida coast, should keep the oil away, at least for now.

An eddy at the top of the current has drawn away the portion of the slick that had been caught in the current. And at the south end, another eddy has pinched off the current entirely, he said. "This is great news," Sole said, speaking at a news conference with Gov. Charlie Crist at the state's emergency operations center in Tallahassee. "And what it does is keep the oil from getting into the Florida Straits."

Oil — at least in the degraded congealed form of tar balls — had been expected to arrive in the Keys and South Florida within the next two weeks or so, but Sole said the disruptions in the current have stopped any movement of oil to the area. But the main part of the slick, which remains dozens of miles from the loop current, could constitute a much greater threat to South Florida if it got caught in the current. Also there is an unknown amount of oil beneath the ocean surface from the still-leaking well."


Continued at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/bro...,6559446.story


... and where's Waldo the AUV?



"What will 'Waldo' find: Mote Marine releases robot into Gulf to search for oil
By KATY BISHOP
KEY WEST — This time, we know where Waldo is — it’s his turn to look for something.
Researchers hope that a robot named Waldo will help them track oil in the Loop Current in waters off Key West. Scientists and engineers with Mote Marine Laboratories released the yellow, torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle into the waters about 25 miles northwest of the island Tuesday afternoon.

The robot, programmed by researchers, will swim along a designated course, diving deep and rising again and again, looking for oil in the water. If it finds oil, it will record the geographic position and depth, as well as the concentration — and then send that information by satellite to researchers who are monitoring it."

"The robot detects pure oil, oil with dispersants and weathered oil. Two similar robots are already deployed in the waters closer to the spill. Mote put another one in the Gulf last week off Venice and plans to put another one in the waters off the Keys. “The biggest value that this thing has is it’s 24/7 data,” said Alan Hails, an oceanographic instrument engineer with Mote. Over a period of about three weeks, Waldo will travel almost due west to a point about 50 miles north and 30 miles west of Dry Tortugas, sending information each time it surfaces."

"Experts predict by the time the oil reaches the Keys it will be weathered into tar balls, which float on the surface, said David Vaughan, director of Mote’s center for coral reef research, who is captaining the boat. Tar balls probably wouldn’t affect the coral reefs as much, since the reefs are on the bottom, but they could get stuck in sensitive mangrove shorelines or sea grass beds. More concerning for corals is the chemical dispersant used by British Petroleum, he said. It’s been shown to be highly toxic to both hard and soft corals, with a 85 to 100 percent mortality rate."

"When it’s time to dive, Waldo takes on water, making itself heavier, and when it wants to rise to the surface, it pushes that water out, Hails explains. At the surface, a bladder inflates with air, popping the tail out of the water so the antenna can communicate with the satellite. The scientific instruments are clustered in the center of the robot’s torpedo-shaped body, where there are four windows for Waldo to send out LED light beams. Sensors read the light reflected back from the water, calculating if there’s oil in the water by the amount reflected back. And that’s just the start — there are also other sensors that make sure that organic matter isn’t misidentified as oil, and devices that log temperature and depth and more."


http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/...ase-robot-gul/

[ricki]

NOAA pulls Fishery Closure zone back westward into the Gulf away from the Dry Tortugas and the Florida Keys while moving it eastward into Florida's Panhandle.



Details: "NOAA Opens 16,000 Square Miles of Fishing Closed Area in Gulf of Mexico
Closes 2,200-square mile stretch
June 4, 2010

NOAA has opened more than 16,000 square miles of previously closed fishing area off the Florida coast. The most significant opening is a 13,653-square mile area just west of the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. It was initially closed on June 2 as a precaution because oil was projected to be within the area over the next 48 hours. However, the review of satellite imagery, radar and aerial data indicated that oil had not moved into the area.

Additionally, the agency closed a 2,275-square mile area off the Florida panhandle federal-state waterline, extending the northern boundary just east of the western edge of Choctawhatchee Bay. For what it is worth, not much at this point, I was out a couple of miles offshore between Hillsboro Inlet and Hallandale Beach Blvd. yesterday. Fair quantity of sargassum mats but no overt evidence of tar balls or unusual oil slicks. Hope it stays that way."
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...4_opening.html

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"Efforts to contain the flood of oil into the Gulf of Mexico showed the first signs of progress as 6,000 barrels of oil were pumped to the surface after the fitting of a containment cap over the blown well, officials said Saturday, but it was an incremental step that offered no guarantees of long-term success.

At a morning news briefing, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, commander of the national response to the disaster, said BP officials still had not closed the four vents of the containment cap, which would allow the well to begin pumping oil to the surface at far greater capacity.

In the meantime, thousands of gallons of oil are flowing into the sea as the massive slick hits shorelines and marshalnd in areas including Louisiana’s fishing towns and Florida’s white-sand beaches, where rust-colored globs are began washing ashore.
Allen said it was crucial to close the vents slowly to avoid putting too much pressure on the cap, which is being held in place with the help of a rubber gasket. “They’re easing the pressure up to the vessel … so they can maintain control of the oil,” said Allen.
As the vents are closed, officials must also ensure that water is not filtering in to mix with the oil and create hydrates, which led to the failure of an initial capping effort last month.
That requires the pumping downward of methanol, meaning officials must maintain a delicate balance at depths of 5,000 feet in conditions that could be disrupted in the event a major storm or hurricane forms. Hurricane season began Tuesday.
Allen said the full closure of the vents and the ramping up of oil production would depend on various conditions.
“They’re making sure they don’t increase the production rate until it is safe to do so,” said Allen. He also noted that the containment cap was only an interim, partial solution that was never guaranteed to fully plug the leak. A cap can only go so far – the only real solution is the completion of two relief wells currently being drilled. When they are finished, it will enable BP to plug the blown well and stop the spill, the worst in U.S. history.
One of the relief wells has been drilled to about 7,000 feet beneath the sea floor, less than half the distance it needs to go. The wells are not expected to be finished until early August."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gree...-cautious.html

...


"Containment cap on spewing Gulf oil well offers hope even as slick spreads to new shores
RAY HENRY, 12:38 p.m. EDT, June 6, 2010

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A device sucking some of the oil from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico offered a bright spot Sunday for a region that has seen its wildlife coated in a lethal muck, its fishermen idled and its beaches tarnished by the nation's worst oil spill. The containment cap placed on the gusher near the sea floor trapped about 441,000 gallons of oil Saturday, BP spokesman Mark Proegler said Sunday, up from around 250,000 gallons of oil Friday. It's not clear how much is still escaping; an estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons of crude is believed to be leaking daily.

While BP officials registered optimism, government officials monitoring the response to the spill were more cautious, wary of drumming up promises they couldn't deliver on. BP chief executive Tony Hayward told the BBC on Sunday that he believed the cap was likely to capture "the majority, probably the vast majority" of the oil gushing from the well. The gradual increase in the amount being captured is deliberate, in an effort to prevent water from getting inside and forming a frozen slush that foiled a previous containment attempt."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/flo...,7641682.story

[ricki]

"In Florida Keys, Residents Plan Their Own Spill Cleanup
By Nathan Thornburgh / Key West Monday, Jun. 14, 2010

A small island in the middle of a big ocean, Key West has always made a virtue of its isolation. In 1982, for example, an onerous Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Route 1, which links the Keys to mainland Florida, resulted in the island's declaring itself the autonomous Conch Republic. This was, of course, mostly a joke ("We Seceded Where Others Failed" was its e pluribus unum), but the mayor's declaration of independence did include a twinge of real anger and a vow that "we have no intention of suffering in the future at the hands of fools and bureaucrats."

Now, facing the possibility that oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill could arrive on its reefs and beaches in the coming weeks, many in the Florida Keys are once again angry about perceived fools and bureaucrats. In particular, they've watched how BP has monopolized and, in the eyes of many, mismanaged the oil cleanup in the northern Gulf of Mexico and are frantically trying to organize an independent local response.(See pictures of the oil spill.)

"We cannot wait. We have to be prepared," says Dan Robey, whose website KeysSpill.com has gathered 4,000 volunteers, including 300 boat captains, who have offered to help before and after any potential arrival of oil. As Patrick Rice, dean of marine science and technology at Florida Keys Community College, puts it, "We will not allow the inept responses that have been happening up north to happen here."

But there's a problem with their plans for grass-roots activism: BP (and the Deepwater Horizon's Unified Command, which BP runs with the Coast Guard and other agencies) has so far insisted on complete control of the cleanup operations. A BP spokesman told TIME that the only appropriate way for interested boat captains to become involved would be to register with the Unified Command's Vessels of Opportunity program. Never mind that according to BP's numbers, only a third of the 7,200 boats "under contract" through the program are in active service. Robey says captains in the Keys haven't even been able to register. "It's a joke, a total joke," he says. "Our people have called them for over a month. They don't return phone calls."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...996441,00.html




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[ricki]

Volunteers Needed In The Keys If you live in the Keys, visit there or live in Miami-Dade County or elsewhere and want to help please read on and get involved. If the oil plume makes it to the Keys the resulting damage and die off of mangroves, estuarine species and dependent wildlife and aquatic species could be staggering. Your help is needed!


http://keysspill.com/

"We Need Volunteers!

Florida Keys Oil Spill Response

In an effort to be proactive in protecting our Florida Keys environment, this website has been created to help link all partner projects (US Navy, Marine Sanctuary) with volunteers, including Charter Captains,Divemasters, businesses, organizations and individuals.This website is constantly being updated with the latest news on meetings and events, visit this site often to stay informed.

Things that you might help with include
pre-assessments, boom deployment, beach clean ups, boat work, organizing efforts, local informational meetings, trainings, etc.

Please email "EVERYONE" you know and tell them to sign up at www.keysspill.com, we need volunteers.

If the Gulf Spill enters the "Gulfstream Current Loop," oil could potentially be in the Keys area in as little as 5 days! We want to be prepared and you can help.

(Note: Professional Wildlife Rehabbers are being sought click the link below for a PDF file with more info.)

Professional Wildlife Rehabbers"


There is a lot of information on the website including a calendar. This important course of some important things you need to know in a petroleum cleanup appears there:

"May 11th (Tues) – OSHA Marine Oil Spill Class. This 4 hour course will give you the HazMat training needed to help with some aspects of Oil Spill Post Emergency Response and Clean Up. This course is designed mainly to address Safety and Healthy Awareness for Crude Oil exposures. It is OSHA certified HAZWOPER trianing as specified in 29 CFR1910.120(q)(11). The class is first-come-first-served, has 40 slots, and costs $100. To sign up, contact Cathy Torres at FKCC at (305) 809-3250.West"

There are many useful links and other information at the website, http://keysspill.com/

Your help could make a difference, please get involved.




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