Gulf drilling said harmful to Fla. coasts

WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) -- Offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico could pose significant risks for the Florida Keys and South Florida, environmentalists say.

Oceanographers say that because of the strong "loop current" that swirls around the southern tip of Florida, a spill from proposed offshore oil rigs off Florida's west coast and panhandle could threaten the ecosystems of the Florida Keys as well as the state's Atlantic Ocean coastlines, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday.

"The loop current creates a potential hazard of drilling close to shore," Billy Causey of the U.S. Office of National Marine Sanctuaries told the newspaper. "If we had an accident, it would come downstream. We know that oil kills mangroves, which don't come back quickly."

"The problem is the loop current does come very close to the Dry Tortugas and all of the Florida Keys as it moves into the Florida Straits," added Frank Muller-Karger of the University of South Florida. "When it wraps around Florida and becomes the Gulf Stream, it goes very close to the (east) coast of Florida and doesn't peel off until it gets to Cape Canaveral."