Oil Heading for Florida Keys and Third Largest Barrier Reef in the World

NASA Image Dated May 17

It's confirmed. The oil is in the loop current and it's heading toward the Florida Keys and beyond. Tar balls have been recovered at the rate of about three an hour at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.

This would be the death stroke for The Keys, which have struggled through decades of unrestrained coastal development, commercial fishing and recreation boating.

Authorities say the slick could reach The Keys in as little as ten days.

Meanwhile, it's claimed that over one million feet of boom have been deployed. A million feet. That sounds like a lot. That's why they use it. Think of it in miles. A million feet is only 200 miles. The reef system in The Keys is 221 miles long. If we cover the keys, who's covering the rich marshlands of the Panhandle? What about the Mississippi Delta?

The total area of the Gulf covered by the sheen measures 10, 170 square miles.

It's hard not to think of this as a global, life-changing event.

~seabgb