Regarding the Louisianna oil spill, here are some rudimentary details. A cursory look at current charts for the Gulf of Mexico indicate that the Loop Current could drive the oil distribution roughly south along the gulf coast of Florida. Unfortunately, the Loop Current links up with the Florida Current that sweeps across from the Yucatan peninsula to the southern tip of Florida, and through the Florida Straights, which would then sweep oil into the Gulf Stream, and up the east coast of the U.S. There appear to be multiple eddy currents in the Gulf, and combined with the vagarities of weather, it appears difficult to forecast the drift of the oil with good reliability, or the time frame involved, but it seems there is a decent chance of some oil making it into the Atlantic Ocean. This would impregnate the Florida Keys with toxins. This is assuming the errant well is capped within a reasonable amount of time. According to one map I saw, there are about 4000 active drilling rigs off the gulf coast of Texas and Louisianna. Brad *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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