Are the Keys in imminent danger of being affected by the oil spill?
In a July 29 news conference, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, head of the U.S. Government’s response effort to mitigate the Transocean/BP oil spill, said that with the oil leak capped there is now “very, very little” chance of oil remnants reaching the Florida Keys and the South Florida mainland. And when the well is permanently sealed there will no longer be any danger of oil impacts to the region. On July 30, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed Allen’s statement. The Keys have not been physically affected by the spill. According to officials at NOAA, the northern end of the Loop Current remains separated from the large clockwise eddy (Eddy Franklin) so there continues to be no clear path for spilled oil to enter the Loop Current from the source in the northern Gulf of Mexico. What is the Loop Current? The Gulf Loop Current is a dynamic, clockwise warm-water current that carries water from the Yucatan Channel north to the Gulf of Mexico, then eastward