Has the oil reached Key West?

The US Coast guard is reporting that 20 tar balls have been found off of Key West Florida. They are being sent for analysis to determine if they are from the gulf oil spill. Scientists warn that tar balls have long been found in the gulf and there’s no proof yet that these 20 are from the BP spill.

The fear is that the spill will reach the major currents which will take it all the way up the east coast. Possible damage to marine life and beaches and the economy could be horrendous.

Satellite imagery today from NASA’s MODIS instrument confirms that a substantial tongue of oil has moved southeast from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and entered the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current. The Loop Current is an ocean current that transports warm Caribbean water through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico. The current flows northward into the Gulf of Mexico, then loops southeastward just south of the Florida Keys (where it is called the Florida Current), and then along the west side of the western Bahamas.