Oil Slick Still Positioned North of Loop Current

KEYS TOURISM ADVISORY 3

May 3, 2010 • 4:30 PM EDT

News and Information From the Monroe County Tourist Development Council

OIL SLICK STILL POSITIONED NORTH OF LOOP CURRENT

Officials with the United States Coast Guard, Monroe County Emergency Management and NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary continue to closely monitor events in the northern Gulf of Mexico related to the BP/Transocean Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill.
Current NOAA’s 72-hour trajectory forecasts continue to show the slick remaining north of the Loop Current, a clockwise current that carries water from the Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, then back down the Florida coast, past the Dry Tortugas and exiting into the Gulf Stream.

However, several news sources are likely to report later today a University of Miami oceanographer’s prediction that the oil slick will permeate the Keys by this weekend. Sanctuary officials dispute this timing based on current NOAA forecast models. NOAA is the official agency providing scientific forecasting and data for the mitigation effort.

Sanctuary and local U.S. Coast Guard officials continue to advise Keys residents and visitors to seek information from official Web sites including:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

http://www.noaa.gov/

Any other information or projections are speculative, said officials.

Officials said there simply is not enough experience with this kind of event to accurately project when and if the Keys will be impacted and what kind of impacts the area would experience if the oil migrates south.
On Sunday, NOAA issued an order restricting fishing for a minimum of 10 days in federal waters most affected by the oil spill, between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay. No other areas of Florida, including the Keys, are under the order at the current time. There are also no current advisories or restrictions on engaging in other watersports in the Keys or other parts of Florida.

The Coast Guard is meeting with various government stakeholders in Key West Tuesday to custom tailor their oil mitigation plan in the event the slick migrates to the south.

The Monroe County Tourist Development Council’s staff and agencies staged a conference call earlier today to discuss different scenarios and to plan future strategies.

The Monroe County Commission is planning a special meeting Tuesday, May 11, at 1 p.m. at the Murray Nelson Government Center to discuss the situation.