How does oil spill in Gulf of Mexico affect diving?

[LarsB]

Dear divers,

I had planned for a long time to spend some time this year (in August) in the Cancun/Cozumel area of the Mayan Riviera in Mexico with my wife; she adores heat, sun + sea (especially bathtub-hot water - and me too), and I intended to go for some neat dives.

Does anybody know anything about how (if at all) diving is already affected or expected to be affected soon in that area?

Preferably by first-hand experience, but all other sources of information or hearsay are also gladly welcomed.

I am aware of the following scientific model (which as far as I know does NOT take the possible effects of hurricanes into account):

Ocean currents likely to carry oil along Atlantic coast:
www2.ucar.edu/news/ocean-currents-likely-to-carry-oil-spill-to-atlantic-coast (the YouTube video on that page)

But it is not clear from this simulation whether my area of interest would actually be affected, by mid-August...

So thank you for any and all hints!

Cheers,
LarsB

 

[TwoBitTxn]

It shouldn't be affected.

A hurricane on the right (wrong?) track would push the oil west. Not south.

Have fun.

 

[k374]

The footprint of the oil spill is still small compared to the entire gulf, Cancun is currently about 600 miles away from the edge of the spill and if it comes further south and hits the Loop current/Gulfstream it will head through the keys to the East coast away from Yucatan. Although if oil hits the keys that will be an ecological disaster of monumental proportions but hopefully the flow is going to be stopped by a bottom kill (via the relief well) in August/September.

see this:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2...op+Stories+2))&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

[DeputyDan]

If Cancun comes into the picture then the oil spill will be beyond a major disaster!

 

[The Blue Whale]

Just in case you are interested in the area that is currently showing the impact of the oil, we've posted a link to a gis map that gets updated daily. Be sure to check out the features of the map if you are interested. The loop takes you day by day from the disaster's start. Then there's a zoom feature that allows you to look closer at the beach areas and of course, you can pan along the coastline.
You can view the link at our site.

 

[LarsB]

Dear divers,

thank you all so much for your answers!

This is very encouraging.

Thanks a lot also for the link to monitor the actual areas of impact of the oil, this is indeed very interesting!

However, this page does not work on my office computer, neither in Firefox 3.0.1 nor Internet Explorer 6 (I'll try again at home tonight).