<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Obama’s ocean chief said that the threat of the BP oil <\/p>\n Speaking with Gwen Ifill on PBS Newshour, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, LUBCHENCO: There’s a very small stream of oil <\/p>\n IFILL: You say tarballs, you mean [softball-sized] tarballs or <\/p>\n LUBCHENCO: Probably little, very little tarballs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Watch it:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “By the time the oil is in the loop current,” Lubchenco concluded, <\/p>\n NOAA—the agency responsible for measuring and predicting the extent <\/p>\n Meanwhile, yesterday tarballs the size of softballs were found washed Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n U.S. bans more Gulf fishing as oil fears grow for Florida<\/a><\/p>\n A new oil rush endangers the Gulf of Mexico and the planet<\/a><\/p>\n
\ndisaster getting caught in the Loop Current “sounds scarier than it is.”
\n As she was making these statements, satellites imagery showed the
\n Maryland-sized slick being entrained in the Loop Current<\/a>, which
\nloops through the Gulf of Mexico and out the Florida Strait, feeding the
\n powerful Gulf Stream current that sweeps along the Atlantic seaboard.<\/p>\n
\nadministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
\n(NOAA), admitted that the growing slick is “likely” to be entrained by
\nthe current, but only a “very small stream” that would be “very, very
\ndiluted,” weathered into tarballs, and “not likely to have a very
\nsignificant impact.” When queried by Ifill how big the tarballs would
\nbe, Lubchenco squeezed her fingers together in front of her face, and
\ndeclared, “Very
\n little tarballs<\/a>!”:<\/p>\n
\nthat is a very light sheen<\/strong> that is getting close to the Loop
\nCurrent. And it’s likely that, at some point, it will be entrained by
\nthe Loop Current. But that current, if there is oil entrained in it, it
\nwould be probably nine to 12 days before that would reach the Florida
\nStrait. And, during that time, it gets highly diluted, parts per
\n billion, and it weathers naturally<\/strong>. And, so, any oil that
\nwould be reaching Florida Strait might be in the form of tarballs, for
\nexample. And whether it ever comes ashore or not would be a function of
\nwhether there were good onshore winds bringing it. So …<\/p>\n
\n[human-sized] tarballs?<\/p>\n
\n“it’s likely to be very, very diluted. And, so, it’s not likely to have a
\n very significant impact. It sounds scarier than it is.”<\/p>\n
\n of the oil disaster—completely
\n failed to predict<\/a> the entrainment of a huge band of the slick into
\nthe Loop Current on May 17. NOAA is not currently publishing any maps or
\n predictions of subsea extent of the dispersed oil plumes.<\/p>\n
\n up on Key West. According to news reports, at least some of the tarballs
\ncome from the Deepwater Horizon disaster<\/a>, which means that the
\nleading edge of the oil disaster reached the Loop Current eight to ten
\ndays ago.<\/p>\n
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