SARASOTA — In a visit to Mote Marine Laboratory, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson announced he will be filing a bill next week calling for a plan to investigate the scope of any long-term harm to the Gulf of Mexico created by the BP oil spill.
Nelson toured Mote on Wednesday and praised scientists for their efforts already under way in assessing the damage the spill may cause the Gulf’s ecosystems. But the senator said there is still is not a comprehensive plan to assess what exactly that damage will be.
Nelson’s bill will call on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to come up with such a plan to monitor undersea oil from the spill. Noting that it was day 78 of the Deepwater Horizon spill, Nelson said such a plan should have been formed “70 days ago.”
“What is known is that 60,000 barrels of oil a day are leaking into the Gulf,” Nelson said. “What we don’t know is what is the long-term effect?”
Nelson said President Barack Obama has created a $10 million fund that is already being tapped by a consortium of scientific institutes, dubbed the Florida Institute of Oceanography, of which Mote is a part.
Mote has been using money obtained from the fund to send robots into the Gulf and near the Keys whose mission is to report back through satellite signals any signs of oil.
So far the robots have been searching from the surface to the bottom of the Gulf off Tampa Bay down to the Keys, but have found no signs of oil, said Mote scientist Gary Kirkpatrick. Operation of the robots is costing $25,000 per month, he said.
Mote officials also showed Nelson the laboratory’s operation in tracking oil, or lack thereof, discovered on Florida’s beaches. Anyone in the world can go to Mote’s website, www.mote.org/beaches, and click on various locations to get a readout on conditions. The information is coming from park rangers at dozens of Florida beaches who are sending the information to Mote.
The effort is not only to inform people of oil found, but also to report the majority of beaches in Florida have not yet been affected by the spill. Program director Barb Kirkpatrick showed Nelson a computer screen that tracks hits on the website that are coming from all over the world.
Green dots that signified a person searching the website littered a map of the United States, as they also did on a map of Europe, showing both U.S. and foreign residents are monitoring the spill.
“We wanted to not only show where oil has been found, but also to show that there are a lot of beaches that are absolutely gorgeous in Florida,” Kirkpatrick said.
In wrapping up his visit to Mote, Nelson responded to questions from media that touched on BP and the claims process for residents affected by the spill. Nelson was critical of BP’s “transparency” with information on the spill, saying it has “been a problem.”
Nelson also warned that, for the foreseeable future, BP is honoring claims only from residents directly affected by the spill, meaning local business owners on Anna Maria Island who feel they are losing tourist dollars to fears over the spill may not see compensation. Nelson said legislators are looking at offering tax breaks to such businesses who may be affected by the spill.
