The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released this map of the Gulf. The bit inside the red lines is being shut down to fishing as of 6pm today.
Presumably, with 19,000 additional barrels of oil spewing out of the ocean floor every passing day, that boundary will grow, and grow, and grow, and grow.If that were not reason enough to worry, hurricane season began yesterday.
If you werent angry enough, over at Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard lists BP’s 10 biggest screw-ups. Here’s number 1:
From the top hat to the top kill: In the past six weeks, it’s become obvious that BP has no idea how to fix a hole a mile below the sea. First there was the failure of the containment dome (a contraption that had to be constructed after the blast, since BP didn’t think to have one ready ahead of time). We waited for the second, smaller dome (the top-hat), which BP decided wouldn’t work either. Next came “junk shots,” in which BP unsuccessfully attempted to plug the hole with golf balls, chunks of rubber and other detritus. Then BP promised the so-called “top-kill” would be the best fix. That failed last weekend, and now BP is moving on to its next trick, another containment dome option that looks much like the others, except this method could actually increase the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf by 20 percent. And if that doesn’t work, the spill will likely continue at least through August, until a relief well can be completed.
Ugh. In any case, this map seems to offer a pretty good way to judge the geographical scope of the spill. Presumably it will be updated on a fairly regular basis as the no-go area expands.