Fishing Restrictions Expanded in Gulf of Mexico

(May 18) -- Federal officials doubled the closure of fishing areas in the Gulf of Mexico today amid fears that oil from BP's leaking well could enter the gulf's powerful loop current, sending it into the Florida Straits and into the Atlantic Ocean.

The new restrictions extend from the coastal area off southeast Louisiana to about 200 miles off the tip of Florida's Gulf Coast, said Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in St. Petersburg, Fla.

That puts 45,728 square miles of federal gulf fishing grounds, or 19 percent, off limits, up from 24,241 square miles, she said.

Jane Lubchenco, NOAA's chief, said most of the oil is dozens of miles away from the loop current. She said her agency expanded the fishing closures as a precaution. She said testing is under way on the gulf seabed to make sure it's safe.

"Oil is increasingly likely to enter the loop," Lubchenco said.

Tar balls, 3 to 8 inches in diameter, washed up Monday in the Florida Keys, but it's unclear whether they came from the BP spill, about 50 miles off Louisiana's coast. The Florida Park Service collected the balls and notified the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard sent a helicopter today to search for more tar balls and dispatched crews to check out the shoreline on foot.

Samples are being sent to a Coast Guard lab in Connecticut for analysis.


"I think it is safe to say that the tar balls washing ashore in the Florida Keys are an example of what might happen if oil becomes entrained in the loop current," Lubchenco said in a conference call with reporters today.

Oil has been leaking into the gulf for nearly a month, since an April 20 explosion led to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, killing 11 workers. BP, which was leasing the rig, and the Coast Guard estimate the leak is sending 200,000 gallons of oil a day into the water, though some scientists think the leak could be up to 10 times larger.

BP began containing some of the leaking oil over the weekend when it installed a mile-long tube to siphon oil to a surface ship. BP said today it had increased the amount being contained from 42,000 gallons per day on Monday to 84,000 gallons today. In a statement, the company cautioned that the siphon's "continued operation and its effectiveness in capturing the oil and gas remain uncertain."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar testified on Capitol Hill today and acknowledged the failings of the federal Minerals Management Service, which regulates the oil and gas industry. He defended most of the agency's 1,700 employees but acknowledged it has "a few bad apples."

"We need to clean up that House," Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Scientists fear that if the oil enters the loop current and is carried eastward to the Florida Keys and up Florida's east coast, it could damage coral reefs and miles of shoreline.

Lubchenco agreed with the independent scientists who have said oil is at the edge, and likely to enter, the loop current.

"It is only a matter of time before it gets into the loop current itself," Nick Shay, a physical oceanography professor at the University of Miami, told NBC Miami-TV.

If oil did enter the loop, Lubchenco said, it would be broken up and highly diluted on the trip east, arriving in Florida emulsified, in long strips or as tar balls.

"While in the loop, evaporation and dispersal would reduce the oil significantly and change its character," Lubchenco said.

A University of South Florida scientist told The New York Times it's unlikely the tar balls that washed up in Florida came from the BP leak because tar balls would take longer to travel such a distance.

"Everybody should be alerted, and we should keep our eyes widely open on the tar ball," oceanographer Chuanmin Hu said. "But at this moment, we don't have enough evidence to say it is from the spill."