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Oil, Oil, Everywhere! (Well, Actually, No...)

Oil Rig

August 11, 2010: Seas covered with a thick, oily sludge. Wrecks and reefs decimated by an onslaught of black goo. Divers lost in a sea of black, inky water. It’s a nightmare image — except that it never happened.

As is so often the case, the greatest damage to Florida’s dive industry came not from the outpouring of oil from the Deepwater Horizon site, but rather from a misunderstanding of how this tragedy has affected the Sunshine State.

  • To start, the oil spread never got as far as Florida’s west coast, the Keys, or Atlantic coast.
  • Many Panhandle dive operators (or at least the ones whose boats are not still under lease to BP) are operating again.

The current state of affairs is perhaps best illustrated by this map from CNN:

Oil Spread

As you can see from the map, what little remains of the spill comes nowhere close to the Panhandle or any other part of the state.

  • If you have a dive trip planned for the Panhandle, check with your dive operator for the latest conditions (but don’t necessarily assume that you will have to go elsewhere).
  • If you have dive travel planned for the Keys or Atlantic coast, you’re good to go (and always have been).

The Gulf oil spill has been the greatest environmental catastrophe of our lifetimes. Its impact on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Katrina four years ago — has been devastating. As Florida divers, however, we have been very fortunate indeed.

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