(MM /agencies / 19-05-10) The U.S. Coast Guard has reported that the spill tar balls found on Monday in Key West (southern tip of Florida), are remnants of oil spill burning rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tar balls, between seven and twenty cm in diameter, were found in beaches of Fort Zachary Taylor Park in Key West. The park rangers also collected tar on the adjacent beach Truman.

The Coast Guard said the spill tar comes from the Deepwater Horizon rig, operated by British Petroleum (BP), which caught fire on April 20 and sank two days later.

The impact of the arrival in Florida Keys of black spot of oil on tourism and the fragile ecosystem of the Keys, whose coral reef is considered one of the three largest in the world, can be catastrophic.

The NOAA said Monday that the oil slick was dangerously close to the main ocean current in the Gulf, about 32 kilometres far from it.

Satellite images from NASA showed that one part of the black spot may have already begun to be absorbed by the current of the marine bight, which would be a direct threat to the ecosystem of the Keys, among others.

 

The black spot is entering the Gulf Stream

NOAA predicts that in the next three days the Blas spot of oil “can be entering the Gulf Stream” and arrive to the State, said Daniel Suman, Professor at Faculty of Marine Sciences at the University of Miami (UM).

Met this forecast, the oil slick not only "would affect the marine sanctuary and coral reef of the Keys, but the tar also could cause serious damage to the mangroves of Miami-Dade County, the Everglades National Park and the beaches of Miami in the Atlantic”, he warned.

“Everything depends on the direction winds flow”, said the Professor of the Rosenstiel Faculty of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of UM.

He added that “the great unknown” is what the layers of oil in the bottom are going to do, and the possibility of them being dragged by Gulf Stream, although it is still soon “to predict the magnitude of the impact in Florida”.

On the other hand, Charlie Crist, Florida Governor, thanked to BP having given 25 million dollars for a national campaign to promote tourism in the State.

“This Money are added to other 25 million dollars we have already received (…) and I praise BP and their commitment to protect our beaches, business and communities affected” by the black spot, said Crist in a press release.

BP SAYS THEY COLLECT PART OF THE OIL SPILL

As far as BP is concerned, they have informed that the extraction tube they were able to introduce at the point of the leakage in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday is extracting to the surface one-fifth of the approximately 5,000 barrels (795,000 litres) of oil per hour in the coasts of the USA. This figure corresponds to one estimated by BP and other sources increase considerably the magnitude of the spill.

However, they expect to increase this fraction progressively and be able to sail the spill this week. “We are doing our best absolutely”, said the BP chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, to CNN.

The pipeline, 53 cm in diameter, was inserted last Tuesday at the point of leakage after the explosion in the rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20. The leak is about 1.6 km deep and 77 km off the coast of Louisiana. The explosion killed eleven people.

“The spill is being controlled. We expect before the end of this week we will make another attempt to completely stop the leak” said Suttles to NBC. The method used is packing the track with synthetic sealants applied with the aid of underwater robots.

However, the U.S. government minimized the achievements obtained so far by BP, as they believe that "there is not a solution to the problem."