tagged w/ Estuaries
-
Mail Online...
.
World's smallest dolphin to be extinct 'imminently' as fishing nets reduce species to just 55 survivors
By Tamara Cohen
PUBLISHED: 11:59 EST, 21 March 2012 | UPDATED: 14:29 EST, 21 March 2012
.
PHOTO:
The Maui dolphin - the world's smallest - is under threat from fishing and just 55 individuals are left.
.
.
The world’s smallest and rarest dolphins are facing ‘imminent’ extinction with just 55 individuals left, conservationists have warned.
Maui’s dolphins – which are classified as critically endangered - have seen their numbers halve in the last seven years alone, as dozens have been caught in fishing nets.
Only found on the west coast of New Zealand, there may be as little as 20 breeding females left, a new study has found.
Although part of the coast is protected from fishing, along most of it, trawling and vast fixed nets held in place by anchors have been blamed for killing the striking animals. The last corpse of a Maui dolphin – which grow to just 1.7metres long - was found last month.
Maui’s have a lifespan of around 20 years but only reach sexual maturity after around seven, and breed infrequently – around one calf every three years.
A new study carried out by University of Auckland, Oregon State University and the New Zealand Department of Conservation - using DNA samples - found the number of dolphins aged more than a year had plummeted from 111 when the last survey was carried out in 2004.
Dr Barbara Maas, a Cambridge University-trained zoologist who was not involved in the research, but has organised a petition to save the Maui’s which has gathered 10,000 signatures, told the Mail: ‘To have just 55 of these wonderful creatures left is beyond even our worst estimates.
‘Their extinction is really imminent now, within a few years. New Zealand is a civilised country, which markets itself as an unspoilt paradise. They must act before it is too late.’
The Maui dolphin is now listed as 'critically endangered'
There were around 1,000 in the 1970s before commercial fishing took off in the area. Marine biologist Dr Rochelle Constantine, who worked on the study, told the New Zealand Daily Herald: ‘We are staring down the barrel of extinction of this sub-species.’
It comes just a month after a coalition of scientists and animal welfare groups came up with a dolphin ‘bill of rights’ they hope will be enshrined in law.
They believe the animals are so intelligent they should be thought of as ‘non-human persons’, allowing whalers to be classed as murderers, they told the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference in Vancouver.
Experts say it is still possible to save Maui’s by setting up a sanctuary and banning nets over a larger area of the coastline. The government has said it recognises the problem and will bring forward proposals at the end of May.
However charities fear more delays could be devastating for the much-loved creatures. Their plight recalls that of the Baiji dolphin in China, which was once numerous and known as the ‘goddess’ of the Yangtze river.
In 2006, an international group of marine scientists spent six week scouring the 1,700 mile river in search of the last survivor, as the population was decimated by fishing, transport and hydroelectric power on the river. They hoped to move it to safer waters and rebuild the population- but found nothing.
It was declared extinct, the first marine mammal to be wiped out for more than 50 years and the first recorded disappearance of a cetacean species due to human activity, the scientists said.
Maui's dolphin is now the rarest in the world. They are a subspecies of Hector’s dolphin which is also endangered.
Conservation groups have been calling for more protection of its habitat for more than 10 years, when a former Environment Minister of New Zealand accused fishermen – who must record any found dead in their nets – of lying about the scale of the problem.
A spokeswomen World Wildlife Fund said: ‘The Maui’s population has been declining since the 1970s, and protection measures introduced in 2008 have not succeeded in turning the situation around. It is a national tragedy that our critically endangered dolphins are still dying needlessly in fishing nets.
‘We need to act immediately to get nets out of the water, including harbors and estuaries, to protect these dolphins throughout their range.’
.
.Mail Online...
.
World's smallest dolphin to be extinct... more
-
-
The last of the big summer holidays is almost here. An upswing in boating traffic is expected throughout the long Labor Day weekend, and Save the Manatee Club is urging the boating community to be extra vigilant, especially in light of the crises manatees have already had to deal with this year.
“The events of 2010 have been tragic for the entire manatee population, which has been dealt one terrible blow after another,” said Patrick Rose, Save the Manatee Club’s Executive Director.
“Last year’s all-time record for total mortality has already been shattered this year. Since January 1st, over 600 manatees have died. That’s more than 10% of the entire known population! Nearly half died as a result of Florida’s unprecedented cold winter.
Although the Deepwater Horizon Well is sealed, the unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico remains a major threat to manatees, and the large variety of marine and freshwater vegetation upon which they depend. Oil can directly pollute the seagrasses and other vegetation that manatees and other wildlife depend on for their very survival and can also block sunlight required for vegetation to grow. We also have substantial concerns regarding massive amounts of chemical dispersants that have been pumped and sprayed to break up the oil and need to watch for ill effects on endangered manatees and other wildlife.
A recent report by Georgia Sea Grant indicates that as much as 79% of the oil that was spilled remains in the Gulf, and we are still just one storm away from even more serious consequences.”
Further, last year a record number of manatees were killed by boat strikes. Recent manatee mortality statistics from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reveal that deaths from boat strikes in 2010 are keeping pace with prior years.
“We feel it’s vital to work with the boating community to help minimize watercraft-related manatee injuries and deaths,” said Dr. Katie Tripp, Director of Science and Conservation for Save the Manatee Club.
“We believe in empowering the boating community so that each boater is aware of his or her ability to protect manatees by always looking out for them while safely enjoying Florida’s beautiful waterways.”
The Club produces and distributes a variety of free public awareness materials designed to keep the waterways safer for Florida’s endangered manatees. Florida boaters can request bright yellow waterproof boating banners to alert other boaters when manatees are in the area.
There are also newly designed shoreline property signs which encourage boaters to keep it slow, and it also features the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) hotline number (1-888-404-3922) for reporting injured manatees. Plus, the new matching boating decal can be placed on all Florida watercraft, from kayaks to jet skis.
Requests for the banners, signs, and decals can be sent via e-mail to education@savethemanatee.org, by calling toll free at 1-800-432-JOIN (5646), or by contacting:
Save the Manatee Club
500 N. Maitland Ave.,
Maitland, FL, 32751.
Dr. Tripp asks Florida boaters to help with manatee protection this Labor Day weekend by watching out for the meandering marine mammals on their travels. “Slow down if manatees are sighted, follow posted boat speed regulations at all times, and stay in deep water channels whenever possible.”
Those who see an injured, dead, tagged or orphaned manatee, or a manatee who is being harassed, are asked to call the FWC hotline number at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on cellular phones, or use VHF Channel 16 on marine radios. She is also recommending that recreational boaters carry up-to-date navigation charts aboard their vessels to avoid shallow areas where manatees feed and rest.
http://www.savethemanatee.org/news_pr_labor_day_10.html
For further information or to arrange an interview with one of the Club’s biologists, contact:
Janice Nearing
Director of Public Relations
Phone: (407) 539-0990
E-mail: jnearing@savethemanatee.org
Note: The Club's yellow boating banner is free to boaters & available upon request.
"PLEASE SLOW - MANATEES BELOW" (banner)The last of the big summer holidays is almost here. An upswing in boating traffic is... more
-
-
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-ocean-20100719,0,1686762.story
Obama to launch ocean initiative
The stewardship policy embraces a controversial zoning practice that could change how the U.S. regulates drilling, fishing and other maritime activities.
By Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
July 19, 2010
Reporting from Washington
President Obama on Monday is set to create a national stewardship policy for America's oceans and Great Lakes, including a type of zoning that could dramatically rebalance the way government regulates offshore drilling, fishing and other marine activities.
The policy would not create new regulations or immediately alter drilling plans or fisheries management. But White House documents and senior administration officials suggest it would strengthen conservation and ecosystem protection.
The initiative culminates more than a year of work by a federal Ocean Policy Task Force, which Obama established last year. After the task force releases its final recommendations, the president is expected to sign an executive order directing federal agencies to adopt and implement them.
Calling the BP oil spill ravaging the Gulf of Mexico a "stark reminder of how vulnerable our marine environments are," the recommendations center on creating a National Ocean Council to coordinate regulation of oceans and the Great Lakes, and on a principle of "ecosystem-based management" for marine areas.
The council would include top federal scientists and officials from a variety of agencies, including national security experts, environmental regulators and managers of ocean commerce.
The recommendations embrace a controversial practice called marine spatial planning, a zoning process of sorts that seeks to manage waters in the way some cities manage factories and strip malls. The process could result in confining activities such as drilling, shipping and conservation to areas the planners deem best-suited to each use.
Nine regional groups — consisting of state, federal and tribal officials — would draft plans for conservation and use of ocean resources that would have to be approved by the National Ocean Council. Federal agencies have agreed to abide by the plans.
If the Great Lakes regional body designated certain lake areas for offshore wind farms, for example, the Interior Department would agree to approve wind farms only within those areas.
The same would be true for any new offshore drilling projects. Currently, Interior officials develop drilling plans under a public comment process within their department.
In Southern California, the heavy focus on "ecosystem-based management" could cause the U.S. Navy to retool its fleet deployment, with an eye on how its operations affect water quality or whales.
The recommendations do not specify their effect on offshore drilling. Administration officials said the new policy would not prejudge or conflict with future findings of the bipartisan commission Obama had charged with investigating the oil gusher.
But the administration says coordinated, stewardship-heavy ocean management is likely to "really change" practices in nearly every marine activity, drilling included. The final task force report predicts that the changes would help restore fish populations, protect human health and "rationally allow" for ocean uses such as energy production.
"This sets the nation on a path toward much more comprehensive planning to both conservation and sustainable use of [ocean] resources," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not been officially announced.
The first draft of the policy, released in September, drew heavy criticism from some quarters, including industry and recreational anglers concerned that sport fishing might be restricted or banned.
After a deluge of criticism and meetings with fishing and boating groups, the administration modified the recommendations to emphasize the importance of fishing and ocean recreation, calling them "critical to the economic, social and cultural fabric of our country."
The recommendations do not include curbs on recreational fishing. But the mere prospect of marine spatial planning has drawn skepticism from ocean users.
Oil and gas officials are concerned too. They have repeatedly urged the administration not to adopt any planning process that could restrict offshore drilling.
Last fall, for example, a representative of the American Petroleum Institute testified at a task force field hearing, "The oil and natural gas industry's presence in the Gulf [of Mexico] has successfully coexisted with other ocean uses like tourism, fishing, the U.S. military and shipping for many years, demonstrating that the current system of governance works well."
The new plan would emphasize nine areas under the broad banner of marine stewardship and conservation, including improved scientific research and mapping; helping coastal communities adapt to climate change and ocean acidification, particularly in the Arctic; and enhancing water quality on land to boost ocean water quality.
jtankersley@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Timeslatimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-ocean-20100719,0,1686762.story... more
-
-
Obama setback in deepwater drilling case
Appeals court won't reinstate six-month ban while it weighs merits
msnbc.com news services
updated 2 hours 52 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration lost an attempt Thursday to keep a temporary moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in place while it appeals a court ruling against the six-month ban.
The administration had asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, to stay a lower-court ruling until a full hearing on the moratorium was heard. But the appeals court found that the Interior Department failed to show the federal government would suffer "irreparable injury."
In the lower court ruling last month, a federal judge, also in New Orleans, lifted the moratorium after Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. argued it was arbitrary because it was a blanket ban on all new drilling in depths below 500 feet.
The Obama administration appealed, saying the suspension was needed to give time to investigate the cause of the BP blowout and ensure other drilling rigs operate safely.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said the ban would reduce crude output by an average of 82,000 barrels a day, more than previously estimated.
The appeals court set arguments on the government's appeal seeking to reinstate the original moratorium order for the week of Aug. 30.
Also Thursday, the head of BP's Gulf Coast restoration unit, Bob Dudley, told NBC and the Wall Street Journal in separate interviews that it could be possible to stop the well before the mid-August date that had been widely discussed.
"In a perfect world with no interruptions, it is possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27," Dudley told the Wall Street Journal.
A BP spokeswoman later clarified his comments, saying that "the expectation is that it will be August" before a relief well will be ready to stop the blowout, and that Dudley was providing "the very, very best scenario if everything went absolutely superbly according to plan."
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Thursday that the relief well is expected intercept and penetrate the Deepwater Horizon well pipe about 18,000 feet below sea level within seven to 10 days.
But he said they won't know how long it will take to stop the oil until they get there. The gushing well has several rings, and oil could be coming up through multiple rings.
The plan is to pump heavy mud and then cement into the well to overcome the upward pressure of the huge oil reservoir below.
If the oil is coming through the outer ring of the well, then they will have to pump in mud and cement to stop that layer first. Then they would have to drill through the hardened cement and repeat the process in each ring until they reach the center pipe and do it again.
That scenario would push into the middle of August, which is the timeline the company and government officials have held to for weeks.
"If you have to exhaust all means for the ways that hydrocarbons are coming up the pipe, then that puts you into middle August," Allen said.
If the oil is only coming up the center pipe, then it's possible to stop the leak sooner.
The relief well is currently the best hope for stanching the oil leak sparked by the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and began an environmental catastrophe for the region.
Shaving even days off the mid-August timeline would stop millions of gallons of oil from escaping into the Gulf. The broken well has spewed between 86 and 169 million gallons of oil, according to federal estimates. That's enough oil to fill about 3.4 million standard bathtubs.
A new collection vessel that should more than double BP's oil-capture capacity to 53,000 barrels a day from around 25,000 is projected to take three more days to hook up, as rough seas hamper efforts to finish the job.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Obama setback in deepwater drilling case
Appeals court won't reinstate six-month... more
-
-
Crews connecting oil vessel to ruptured well
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 6, 2010 9:11 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Crews are in the process of connecting the vessel Helix Producer to the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, said the man leading the federal response to the Gulf oil disaster. The hookup has been partially completed despite rough seas.
The vessel should draw up to 53,000 barrels of oil a day when it becomes operational, newly retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Tuesday afternoon in Houston, where he traveled to meet with BP officials. He also said progress continues to be made on two relief wells.
Despite rough weather in the Gulf of Mexico, Allen believes that the placement of a new containment cap and the deployment of key air and sea resources will eventually stop the massive amounts of oil now gushing from the well.
Once the Helix Producer is fully connected to the well and operational, officials will decide within 10 days whether to proceed with replacing the containment cap, Allen said.
Federal estimates say between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels (about 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) of oil have been gushing into the Gulf daily since April 22, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank in the Gulf, two days after it exploded in flames.
High seas continue to hamper cleanup efforts. Allen said officials are closely watching a weather system near the Yucatan Peninsula.
Allen is meeting with BP in Houston about several "significant" developments. "You can't be successful if you can't coordinate, collaborate and integrate together," he said.
Allen told CNN earlier Tuesday that officials will be monitoring weather patterns to determine if and when they would try to install the cap, a process that will involve unbolting the jagged edge that exists on the structure now. Once completed, the new containment cap, he said, will achieve a perfect seal and keep oil from escaping.
Allen said the new cap "would let us get to a capture rate of 80,000 barrels a day." Crews currently are capturing up to 26,000 barrels a day.
Another tool in the effort to contain and stop the oil flow is a relief well that is "very close" to being completed, Allen told CNN, guessing it will be ready sometime in early or mid-August. Over the next week, relief well rig workers will drill 100 feet at a time until they can intercept the wellbore at just the right place, he added.
In early June, during an exclusive 48-hour embed with Allen, CNN's Kyra Phillips visited the site of the oil disaster and gained access to the Development Driller III -- the rig that is drilling the primary relief well some 16,000 to 18,000 feet below the sea floor.
"The intention is to intercept the wellbore, well down below the surface near the reservoir, then pump heavy mud in to counteract the pressure of the oil coming up," he told her. "That will allow them to basically plug or kill the well. Once that's done, you could do things like remove the blowout preventer, bring it to the surface and try to find out what happened."
Also, a massive airship, or blimp, and a ship that can suck oil out of the ruptured well are expected to arrive in the Gulf region at the end of the week to aid in oil disaster response efforts. Their arrival is being delayed because of rough weather, said Stephanie Hebert, spokeswoman for the cleanup effort.
The U.S. Navy airship will be used to detect oil, direct skimming ships and look for wildlife that may be threatened by oil, the Coast Guard says. It had been scheduled to reach the Gulf on Tuesday. The 178-foot-long blimp, known as the MZ-3A, can carry a crew of up to 10. It will fly slowly over the region to track where the oil is flowing and how it is coming ashore.
The Navy says the advantage of the blimp over current helicopter surveillance operations is that it can stay aloft longer, with lower fuel costs, and can survey a wider area.
The Coast Guard has already been pinpointing traveling pools of oil from the sky.
"The aircraft get on top of the oil. They can identify what type of oil it is and they can vector in the skimmer vessels right to the spot," Coast Guard Capt. Brian Kelley said.
But the problem since last Wednesday has been the ability to clean it up before it approaches land. Bad weather has made that task more difficult.
Tammy Mitchell of the Unified Command's Joint Information Center in Houma, Louisiana, said she believes no skimmers, aerial dispersants or onshore activity were deployed or operated Tuesday in Louisiana because of the weather. Teams are on a 48- to 72-hour standby watch because of the weather.
Poor conditions also canceled a boat tour for BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, although he did manage to meet with workers.
Suttles said improvements have been made in cleanup operations. "The program will more effectively deploy boats to oil recovery activity and better utilize local commercial and charter fishing vessels to advance the effectiveness of the Gulf of Mexico response."
Meanwhile, Bob Grantham, spokesman for TMT Offshore Group, said progress has been made in testing the company's A Whale oil skimmer, the world's largest.
The delay from high seas "has allowed us to make valuable observations and to develop some additional technological innovations designed to improve the channeling of oily water into the ship's large capacity tanks," Grantham said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Over the next few days, we will have our first real opportunity to test the new technology under conditions that we hope will maximize the effectiveness of collection and ultimately decanting."
Earlier, officials said A Whale's abilities so far are "inconclusive," meaning the massive converted oil tanker -- which is 3.5 football fields long -- has yet to prove its Taiwanese owner's claim that it can skim between 15,000 and 50,000 barrels of oil off the sea in a day.
The Coast Guard said the testing period for the A Whale has been extended through Thursday.
So far, crude oil floating in the sea has not been concentrated enough for A Whale to skim effectively, according to oil company BP, even though it appears the ship has been surrounded by pools of oil just a few miles from the gusher.
"We've got oil coming up from over a mile below the surface. And it doesn't always come up in one spot. It's not always predictable. So, in fact, we need to locate the oil first, and then assign the ship to the areas of heaviest concentration," BP spokesman Hank Garcia said.
Bad weather has hindered cleanup efforts, he said. "When you've got 6-foot, 8-foot seas, it's not going to lend itself to good capture of the oil."
On Monday, authorities said tar balls linked to the crude gushing from BP's ruptured deepwater well had reached Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain and hit the beaches near Galveston, Texas.
The Coast Guard reported over the weekend that a shift in weather patterns could send more oil toward sensitive shores in Mississippi and Louisiana, and bad weather over the past few days has significantly hampered cleanup efforts.
Anne Rheams, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Monday that the pattern was expected to persist for at least three more days.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon that a low-pressure area located near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in the southern Gulf of Mexico was producing showers and thunderstorms, but it was not likely to develop into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours. A system that had hovered over the Louisiana coast Tuesday morning moved inland.
CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.Crews connecting oil vessel to ruptured well
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 6, 2010 9:11... more
-
-
Tar balls reported on Mississippi mainland; Alex heads into Gulf
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 27, 2010 10:58 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Mississippi officials reported oily tar balls washing up on their mainland shores for the first time Sunday, as authorities throughout the Gulf Coast region kept a wary eye on Tropical Storm Alex.
"It has hit our shores," said Pascagoula, Mississippi, Mayor Robbie Maxwell, adding that tar balls washed up on a nearby stretch of beach during the afternoon Sunday.
"This is what we've been expecting. We had hoped and prayed we would somehow miss this, but it's hit us now. The good news is that for the last five or six weeks we've been preparing to attack it when it hit our shores, and that's exactly what we've done," Maxwell said.
A 23-person crew was out on the beach Sunday afternoon, collecting tar balls, he said.
"Now that we have it on our shores, every day it'll have to be attacked again," the mayor added.
Mississippi officials said while tar balls and glob-like "mousse patties" washed ashore in at least four locations, the areas affected were relatively small and no beaches were closed.
Meanwhile, Alex restrengthened into a Tropical Storm Sunday night as it headed into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service but it is expected to steer clear of oil-affected areas. The storm had temporarily weakened to a tropical depression as it passed over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
"We think the storm is going to stay on a more southern track. That would be good news because it would avoid the area near the oil spill," said Todd Kimberlain of the National Hurricane Center.
However, forecasters have not ruled out an easterly shift in Alex's path.
"We all know the weather is unpredictable, and we could have a sudden last-minute change," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's response manager.
The governors of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama declared Sunday a day of prayer in their respective states as efforts to cap the massive gusher continue.
Researchers have estimated that between 35,000 barrels -- about 1.5 million gallons -- and 60,000 barrels -- about 2.5 million gallons -- of oil are gushing into the ocean every day.
If Alex forces a work stoppage at the ruptured BP well, officials fear that as much as 2.5 million gallons of oil could flow into the Gulf for two weeks.
That is because it would take 14 days to put everything back in place -- meaning the containment cap would be off for that period, allowing oil to flow freely, Allen said.
BP plans to place a third rig called the Helix Producer at the well site next week, which will increase the amount of oil being captured to 53,000 barrels a day, Allen said. That, too, could be disrupted if Alex affects the area.
Alex is the first named storm of what is expected to be a fierce Atlantic hurricane season. It formed in the Caribbean on Saturday.
Tropical storm warnings for the coast of Belize and the east coast of the Yucatan were discontinued earlier Sunday, the hurricane center said. Alex soaked Belize after making landfall in the Central American nation several hours earlier with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
After dropping in wind speed over the Yucatan, Alex's winds increased to 45 mph with higher gusts Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center said. The system was moving west-northwest at near 7 mph.
"Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Alex could become a hurricane in the next 48 hours," the hurricane center said. Alex is expected to make landfall Thursday morning near La Pesca, Mexico.
In the meantime, forecasters said Sunday that Alex was expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain over the Yucatan peninsula, southern Mexico and Guatemala through Tuesday, with 15 inches possible over mountainous areas.
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the hurricane center said.
Oil company BP said the storm has not forced any evacuations at the oil spill site. But, to the south, BP and Shell were evacuating all nonessential personnel from oil platforms as a precaution.
Gulf Coast residents feared that high winds and storm surges could spread the slick and push more oil ashore into bays, estuaries and pristine beaches, exacerbating the oil disaster triggered by BP's ruptured well.
"The greatest nightmare with this storm approaching is that it takes this oil on the surface of the Gulf and blows it over the barrier islands into the bays and the estuaries," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida said. "And that is where you really get the enormous destruction, because it's just very difficult to clean up those pristine bays."
If the storm heads to the east of the oil spill, it would send the oil farther out to sea.
If the storm heads more directly toward the central Gulf and Louisiana, it might push the oil toward Florida.
"We've never been in this situation before," CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said. "We've never seen an oil spill that encompassed the Gulf like this, end up so close to shore."
CNN's April Williams, Patty Lane, Chuck Johnston, Brandon Miller, T.J. Holmes and Moni Basu contributed to this report.Tar balls reported on Mississippi mainland; Alex heads into Gulf
By the CNN Wire... more
-
