Gulf oil spill could 'devastate' South Florida's environment
Mark Graffis
109347.story
Gulf oil spill could 'devastate' South Florida's environment As
Gulf blowout gushes oil, fears grow for Florida's wildlife and
beaches By David Fleshler, Sun Sentinel
7:03 AM PDT, May 5, 2010
Few parts of the United States would be as devastated by an oil
slick as the southern coast of Florida.
A necklace of federal wildlife refuges wraps around the tip of the
peninsula, protecting wading birds, Key deer, American crocodiles
and nesting sea turtles. The largest coral reef system in the
continental United States forms an undersea rainforest of fish,
crabs, sponges and coral, extending from the southern end of the
Keys to the shallows off Palm Beach. The beaches from Broward County
up the coast are among the most important in the world for loggerhead
sea turtles, now just beginning their annual nesting season.
"A major oil spill would devastate the ecosystem and the economy
based on that ecosystem," said Larry Crowder, professor of marine
biology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.
"It's a particularly bad time of year because just about everything
is nesting or replicating.
"In the Gulf of Mexico giant blue fin tuna are spawning, and their
eggs and larvae float on the surface," he said. "Seabirds and gulls
are nesting. For nesting sea turtles, obviously, oiling the beaches
could have a devastating impact."
The critical question for South Florida is whether the slick spreading
across the northern Gulf of Mexico will be dragged south by the
Loop Current, a swift stream of water that flows from the Gulf
through the Florida Straits between the Keys and Cuba, feeding into
the Gulf Stream, a current that comes within a few miles of the
southeast Florida beaches.
"Exactly when the oil will enter the Loop Current is unknown, but
it appears to be imminent," said Robert Weisberg, an oceanographer
at the University of South Florida who tracks the current. "Once
it's in the Loop Current, it's only a matter of a week or so before
the oil is at the entrance to the Florida Straits, and one more
week in the vicinity of Miami and Palm Beach."
An estimating 200,000 gallons of oil a day is gushing from the floor
of the Gulf of Mexico, after an explosion and fire at a British
Petroleum drilling platform killed 11 workers. Under immense public
and government pressure over what's quickly becoming one of the
worst environmental disasters in U.S.
history, the company is trying to plug the well and prevent the
slick from spreading.
Even if the oil reaches South Florida, it's uncertain whether it
would wash up on the beaches. That would depend on coastal winds
and the eddies and currents that spin off the Gulf Stream, Weisberg
said.
Also unknown is the condition of the oil when it arrives. Many
people may think that thick, gooey black oil is the worst, but
lighter oils such as the kind pouring into Gulf can be more dangerous
to wildlife. That's because their chemicals can more easily become
absorbed.
Oil changes over time. As oil floats along the ocean surface in the
hot sun, volatile compounds will evaporate, reducing the oil's
toxicity and making it thicker and gooier.
If the oil does come through on the Loop Current, it would first
reach the coral reefs around Dry Tortugas National Park. Richard
Dodge, director of the National Coral Reef Institute at Nova
Southeastern University, said oil has many toxins for corals that
could cause reproductive problems, bleaching and death.
"In Panama, for example, there was a major refinery spill some time
ago," he said. "Even though that oil was thought to be primarily
floating, there were some severe impacts to the reefs."
At Everglades National Park, the oil could drift into the cul-de-sac
of Florida Bay a shallow, seagrass-carpeted home to dolphins,
sharks, wading birds and crocodiles. James Fourqurean, a professor
at FIU's Department of Environmental Sciences, said the oil could
end up stuck in the bay for years.
The seagrass could tolerate it, he said, but a vast variety of fish
and other animals that live in the seagrass could die.
The mangrove islands of the bay and the Keys are especially vulnerable
because the oil could clog their root systems, destroying habitat
for crocodiles, manatees, fish, roseate spoonbills, great white
herons, snook and sea trout.
"If the oil slick were to enter a mangrove ecosystem, it would
blanket the wetlands," said Jerome Lorenz, an ecologist with Audubon
on Florida. "Once it's in there, it can't be cleaned out. Most of
the great wading bird colonies of the Everglades occur in mangrove
habitat. This would potentially have a devastating impact."
Among the fishing guides in the Keys and Everglades who navigate
the labyrinthine, mangrove-lined waterways and island clusters of
the southern Florida wilderness the spill has generated deep worry.
"It would devastate Everglades National Park, for sure," said Capt.
Brian Sanders, of Sunrise, who guides out of Chokoloskee Island.
"There's so many animals that depend on that area to live, from the
sea turtles that come in on the incoming tide to feed, you have
Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, you have manatees and then you have
just a vast array of birds. You have the pelicans, cormorants,
terns, seagulls."
Capt. Jim Sharpe, charter captain out of Summerland Key near Key
West, tried to be hopeful, noting that the Gulf Stream sometimes
moves as far as 40 miles from the Keys. But if the oil does come,
he said, it would be "catastrophic."
"There wouldn't be any fishing," he said. "And without fishing and
diving in the Keys, there isn't much left."
As they watched the situation in the Gulf, cities and counties in
South Florida began initial preparations for a potential disaster.
Palm Beach County established the Deepwater Horizons Planning Task
Force to address such issues as protecting the county's four inlets
and locating and paying for booms.
Broward County emergency officials were updating their oil-spill
contingency plans and reviewing courses of action, such as whether
to mobilize boat brigades to capture oil that slips past protective
booms.
Fort Lauderdale placed contractors on standby to handle environmental
cleanup.
Staff writers Steve Waters and Scott Wyman contributed to this
report.
David Fleshler can be reached at dfle...@SunSentinel.com or
954-356-4535.
Copyright ) 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel