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CajunSaint · #1 03-20-2011, 11:35 AM

Posted: Sunday, 20 March 2011 6:40AM

Possibly massive oil sheen in the Gulf

WWL.com Reporting
The Coast Guard says it is responding to the reports of an almost 100 mile slick of oil in the Gulf Of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

Multiple reports have come in of a sheen nearly 100 miles long and 12 miles wide.

The photos above and below were taken on Friday by photographers with the group On Winds Of Care, an group that documents damage to wildlife habitat areas.

Those reports started coming in Saturday morning.

The Coast Guard was able to confirm a substance on the surface and is continuing to look into the situation.

A crew and a marine science expert have been dispatched to assess the situation.

The oil sheen was reported about 20 miles away from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion last April.

A fisherman also reports fresh oil coming ashore near South Pass, Louisiana, and that cleanup crews are laying new boom near the beach.

Montauk17 · #2 03-20-2011, 01:16 PM

A buddy of mine went on a charter out of venice last week and saw a good bit of oil. They also were trolling some diving baits and pulled them up covered up in oil.They only caught 2 small yellowfin that day.Not good,that much oil does not just go away. I do not know the exact location they were in,but it was not far from the deepwater site.

longsidelandry · #3 03-20-2011, 01:20 PM

That's about right. Just when I planned a trip out of Venice for next month something gotta come along and screw it up

Montauk17 · #4 03-20-2011, 01:24 PM

I hope for the best,the gulf seemed alive and healthy when we went out last month. I was also looking forward to going on another trip soon,sucks.

LPfishnTIM · #5 03-20-2011, 01:24 PM

where's BP? they doing there job out there? oil is high as can be but there is this much just floating out there by our coast, what the heck!

Montauk17 · #6 03-20-2011, 01:26 PM

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...mexico_un.html http://oilspillaction.com/breaking-n...ouisiana-coast

"W" · #7 03-20-2011, 01:36 PM

Nothing on MMS website as of yet....and until further testing you can not blame or pin point BP... Slicks of oil in the Gulf is not uncommon at all.... Could be a pipeline leaking ....lots of pipelines were patched in that area after Hurricane Blame Bush....

eman · #8 03-20-2011, 02:36 PM

BP will get the blame for every spot of oil in the gulf for the next hundred years.
Kinda like Bush???

Montauk17 · #9 03-20-2011, 07:48 PM

Hopefully it is BS.....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Louisiana fire chief says a substance found floating in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be weathered oil. The Coast Guard is testing the substance to confirm what it is and determine where it came from.

Grand Isle Fire Chief Aubrey Chaisson said he saw the substance up close Sunday aboard a boat and also viewed it from helicopter.

He said it looked like "emulsified oil," indicating it wasn't fresh. He said the substance covered about a two to three-mile area.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Casey Ranel says the agency sent out a cutter Sunday morning to collect samples.

The Coast Guard had gotten reports of an oil sheen, but officials have not confirmed the substance is oil. Ranel says dredging had been going on not far away at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and it's possible the substance is silt dredged from the bottom.

Ray · #10 03-20-2011, 08:53 PM

The light ends of the Horizon oil is gone. Only thing left to that oil is the tar and that should be sitting on the bottom of the GOM somewhere. Shouldn't be any slicks or sheens from that well, they cemented the whole well.

Montauk17 · #11 03-20-2011, 08:57 PM

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Tests-unde...118339554.html

fishinpox · #12 03-20-2011, 08:58 PM

Ask yakem *****

"W" · #13 03-20-2011, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishinpox

Ask yakem *****

Ray · #14 03-20-2011, 09:19 PM

What was reported as a miles-long oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is likely a plume of silt emanating from a dredging operation on the Mississippi River, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said Sunday.
Still, the Coast Guard is testing the substance, which has an associated rainbow sheen similar to that resulting from oil spills, to determine exactly what it is, said spokesman Henry Cambre.
It is possible, Mr. Cambre said, that whatever is causing the sheen was trapped in river bed sediment and was released by the dredging work. The Coast Guard said it expects results from those tests to be available later Sunday.
The Coast Guard station in New Orleans received a report Saturday morning of a three-mile-long patch of rainbow sheen south of Grand Isle, La. Two subsequent sightings that were relayed to the Coast Guard had the slick growing; the last caller said it stretched from six miles south of the coast to 100 miles offshore.
Officers confirmed the existence of a substance near the water's surface, but that initial investigation was cut short when their helicopter was diverted to a separate search and rescue mission. The Coast Guard has since dispatched additional aircraft and boats from Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans to the scene.

Ray · #15 03-20-2011, 09:25 PM

Oil in various forms was reportedly coming ashore on the west side of Grand Isle on Sunday, a Jefferson Parish councilman said.

Grand Isle Volunteer Fire Department personnel initially reported the incident, councilman Chris Roberts wrote in a news release.

Coast Guard units and BP officials are investigating. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office helicopter is also investigating.

Ray · #16 03-20-2011, 09:28 PM

The U.S. Coast Guard says there is some sort of substance in the water in the Gulf of Mexico, and officials are collecting samples to determine what it is.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Casey Ranel says the agency sent out a cutter Sunday morning to collect samples of the substance, which was spotted off the coast of Louisiana. She says officials are still awaiting the results of testing. Officials also were working to determine how big of an area the substance covered.
The Coast Guard had gotten reports of an oil sheen, but officials have not confirmed the substance is oil.
Ranel says dredging had been going on not far away at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and it's possible the substance is silt dredged from the bottom.

Ray · #17 03-20-2011, 09:32 PM

Oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico south of Grand Isle for four to six hours Saturday, the apparent source of oil that washed ashore on Louisiana beaches Sunday, a Jefferson Parish Council member said.
The source of the leak has been secured, Councilman Chris Roberts said in an email.
There have been reports that Grand Isle and other barrier islans had been polluted by the oil.
Roberts said Coast Guard Capt. John Burton, the commanding officer of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Morgan City, said a drilling site was being plugged when the leak occurred.
On Saturday, the Coast Guard received varying reports detailing a sheen between three and 100 miles long, starting about six miles off the coast of Grand Isle. However, the Guard apparently is investigating that as a separate incident.
The Coast Guard had investigated the sheen by sending out a cutter to collect samples, Coast Guard spokeswoman Casey Ranel said.
The Coast Guard said the samples contained "only trace amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons, oil and grease."
The Coast Guard said "the dark substance (in the Gulf) is believed to be caused by a tremendous amount of sediment being carried down the Mississippi River due to high water, possibly further agitated by dredging operations."
The Guard said it is deploying boom to protect areas where "an oily substance was washing ashore on Elmer Isle, Fourchon Beach and Grand Isle."
The Guard is treating the the beach oilings as separate from the sheen it said contained only trace amounts of hydrocarbons.
"We have 10,000 feet of hard boom and 9,000 feet of five-inch sorbent boom ordered into the area. We have 5,000 feet of each boom already delivered and staged in Grand Isle," Burton said.
A company has been hired to clean up the impacted shorelines, the Coast Guard said.
"Samples have been taken from the shoreline impacts for testing, but the oily substance is not, at this time, suspected to be residual oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," the Coast Guard said in a press release.
Grand Isle Fire Chief Aubrey Chaisson said he saw the substance up close Sunday aboard a boat and also viewed it from a helicopter. He said the substance, which covered about a two to three-mile area, looked like "emulsified oil."