The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Mexican Gulf may, if it hits Florida beaches, threaten a sport fishing industry worth almost 1 billion euros.
Tar balls that have floated ashore there recently have been identified as not coming from the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon incident off the coast of Louisiana, but US government scientists fear that weather conditions may now push them into currents leading to the Florida Coast, and some believe this has already begun.
Scientists with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for marine/fisheries issues, noted that weather patterns “may begin pushing tar balls on the oil spill’s southern edge to the southwest, and potentially into the Loop Current”. Besides the ecological threat to volatile wetlands in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, effects of the oil slicks may in that case affect a sport fishing industry recently valued at 1.2 billion dollars.
The study, presented in a news release by the non-profit Everglades Foundation, found that sport fishing alone annually generates $722 million in retail sales of equipment and other expenditures; $378 million in wages supporting 12,391 full-time equivalent jobs; and tax revenue of $162 million for federal and state entities.
Only Floridian fishermen were polled in the study; out-of-state anglers visiting Florida would make the contribution even much bigger.
The legendary Everglades, shrinking by year lately due to land development and in many places threatened by waste from the sugar industry, serve as a giant nursery for game-fish.
“In a worst-case scenario, oil reaches the mangrove habitats, which would have far-reaching consequences. Juvenile tarpon, for example, which are the future of the fishery, depend on healthy mangrove habitats”, said Aaron Adams, director of operations for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, the non-profit originator of the study.
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Charlie Crist confirmed that the Coast Guard had found that “a small portion” of the oil slick had entered the Gulf’s loop current that feeds the Florida Straits and could reach those waters in seven or eight days.
A NOAA bulletin played down the importance of the finding slightly by stressing that “the oil may get caught in a clockwise eddy in the middle of the Gulf, and not be carried to the Florida Straits at all”.
Governor Crist declared a state of emergency soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and then sank in late April.
He says he could deploy up to 2,500 National Guard members, if need be, and is considering widening the emergency sector to include even Miami-Dade County.