Oil spill threatens wildlife and outdoor recreation

It’s big. It’s bad. And it’s coming to the coastlines of some of America’s best beaches. I wish I were talking about a Jimmy Buffett tour, instead of the ongoing Gulf oil spill.

Who hasn’t seen the headlines about British Petroleum’s failed attempts at capping the gushing flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana? Local residents, especially fisherman, are losing their livelihoods, and every day new reports reveal the deadly toll the oil spill has taken on sensitive and endangered wildlife.

But the oil spill is also threatening another part of Gulf coast life: the outdoor industry. Last week, the American Sportsfishing Association reported that nearly a third of the Gulf’s waters are closed to fishing. And even those most die hard seafarers should think twice about boating, sailing, kayaking, snorkeling or scuba diving there, too.

Vast subsurface oil plumes may be headed to Florida’s coast, which could cast a toxic cloud over the Sunshine State’s fragile coral reefs. Although they’re not the Great Barrier Reefs, Pensacola’s beaches in north Fla. are “the best-kept secret in the diving world,” according to state tourism officials.

And… that’s not all. Off-shore drilling expert Richard Charter says, “If one of the oil plumes comes into the Keys at night, for example, underwater, undetected, it could kill sea grass beds. It could kill mangroves without anybody knowing about it until everything started to die.”

Experts predict that oil could start to come ashore in the Keys in the next few months. If they’re right, Jimmy Buffett won’t be the only one “wasting away in Margaritaville.”

– Catalina Tresky

This post originally appeared on WEND – Beyond Adventure’s Greenery Blog.