Oil Slick Spotted in Gulf of Mexico

Posted in BP British Petroleum,Environment,Gulf Coast,Louisiana Maritime News,US Coast Guard (USCG) on March 19, 2011

NEW ORLEANS, LA – On Friday, March 18, 2011, a helicopter pilot flying over the Gulf of Mexico spotted a 100 mile long oil slick within about 20 miles of the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

4WD vehicle like the ones used by cleanup crews that were spotted on Gulf coast beaches on patrol in South Pass, LA.

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the sighting about 30 miles offshore and near the Matterhorn oil field. The Matterhorn well is located about 20 miles north of the site of the Deepwater Horizon.

In an article in the Huffington Post, it states that there is a deepwater drilling platform in the Matterhorn field that was acquired in 2010 from TotalFinaElf E&P and presently owned by W&T Technology. This information is according to the Times Picayune newspaper.

In addition to the original sighting by the helicopeter pilot, other witnesses have provided accounts. The captain of a fishing boat went through the oil slick and stated that “it was strong enough to make his eyes burn” and another fisherman from Louisiana reported fresh oil coming ashore near South Pass, LA.

Also in South Pass, LA, cleanup crews were spotted laying new boom near the beach and spraying a substance on the beach near the marsh filled coast while on patrol in four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The Huffington Post article has more to say about the oily beaches:

Cleanup crews are still operating along the marshes and beach areas of Louisiana and other gulf states. The Bay Jimmy of Louisiana’s Barataria Bay remains heavily oiled.

The Huffington Post article also pointed out that there were some students on spring break who noticed some oily sea shells in Pensacola, FL:

Oil is also being discovered in more populated areas too. With spring break coming, students and tourists are already heading to the Gulf to escape the winter up north. Recently a group of Missouri college kids came across oil off the beaches of Pensacola. “We were fishing with nets for shells, we call it shelling, and it was just brown, I thought it was shark poop at first,” one incredulous student told local Pensacola station WEAR-TV.