Officials: Tar Balls In Keys Not Linked To Gulf Oil Spill
Several Balls Of Tar Found On Key West Beach
POSTED: Tuesday, May 18, 2010
UPDATED: 8:44 am EDT May 19, 2010
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
KEY WEST, Fla. -- The Coast Guard Marine Safety Laboratory in New London, Conn. analyzed a sampling of tar balls discovered on Florida Keys shoreline Tuesday and determined that none of the collected samples are from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
A sampling of tar balls discovered on beaches at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, Fla., Smathers Beach in Key West, Big Pine Key, Fla., and Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Fla. were flown by a Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet based in Miami, Fla., to New London, Conn. Tuesday for testing and analysis.
Slideshow: Tar Balls Wash Up In Florida Keys
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Watch: Underwater Video Of Spill
Info: NOAA's Deepwater Horizon Page
Special Section: Gulf Oil Spill
The results of those tests conclusively show that the tar balls collected from Florida Keys beaches do not match the type of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said. The source of the tar balls remains unknown at this time.
The U.S Coast Guard said it has received reports of tar balls discovered in three locations in the Florida Keys on Tuesday, as officials continue to investigate the origin of more than 20 balls of tar found on Key West Monday.
The tar balls found by the Florida Park Service on Monday, ranging in size from three to eight inches in diameter, washed up on the shores of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.
A team from the Coast Guard spent Tuesday morning on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, as well as Smathers and Higg's beaches, searching for more tar balls.
"What we're basically doing is going through, conducting a shoreline assessment, seeing if there are any contaminants on the beach," said Lt. Lee Crusius, of the U.S. Coast Guard. "The folks that we have here are marine safety technicians from Sector Key West."
Coast Guard officials said it is unclear if the tar balls Monday came from the Gulf of Mexico spill.
"We really don't know what to expect so we're trying to get a bird's-eye view to see if there is any possibility of oil sheens or to see if more tar balls are rolling in. We won't be able to answer that until after Tuesday's flight," U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Sabrina Elgammal.
Samples of the tar found Monday were collected and shipped to the laboratory in Connecticut to determine its origin.
The Coast Guard planned to search the smaller islands off the coast of Key West for any other signs of tar balls. A vigilant public has called in reports of tar balls in Big Pine Key, Loggerhead Key and Smathers Beach on Key West's south coast.
Vendor Rick Harlan said he saw officials searching for oil along Smathers Beach on Key West Tuesday.
"They were walking around with little plastic booties on their feet. We're telling them, 'Don't put the booties on. There's no oil up here. Don't start wearing those until the oil's here, scare everybody away. I'm trying to make a living,'" Harlan said.
Examining satellite imagery, scientists offer conflicting assessments about whether bands of oil have reached the Loop Current that feeds the Florida coast and the Keys, but most concur that such a trip is inevitable in the coming days.
At a meeting in Miami Monday morning, marine scientists said it is almost inevitable that oil will wash up in the Keys.
“What we're trying to do is identify naturally locating places where tar balls are going to accumulate," said Coast Guard Capt. Jim Fitton. "Once they start coming in close, we can monitor those closely."
Not only could tar balls and oil be catastrophic for the mangroves and coral, but the chemicals added to stop them could do untold damage, scientists said.
“I would characterize this as a dire situation,” said Dr. Nick Shay, of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School.
Meanwhile, BP said that less oil is leaking into the Gulf thanks to a tube that is siphoning about one-fifth of the oil into a tanker.
Officials said tar balls are a hazardous material, and people who are not trained to handle them should not touch them.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked residents or visitors who spot signs of oil on Florida's beaches to call the State Warning Point at 877-2-SAVE-FL or dial #DEP from a cell phone. For more information on the state of Florida's response to the oil spill, visit the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's website.
