“I think we are witnessing one of the USA’s worst ecological disasters ever,” Linda Walters, professor of biology at U. Central Florida, said about the oil rig explosion of April 20. “The damaged area will extend for many hundreds to thousands of miles and will persist for many, many years.”
Last month, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oilrig exploded 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It resulted in 17 injured workers, 11 presumed dead and enough oil leakage to severely threaten industries and wildlife that thrive off the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Walters, the currents and weather patterns ultimately predict the arrival date of the oil to Florida’s shores and inland waters, but state and federal agencies are conducting baseline monitoring on the west coast and Florida Keys to prepare for the inevitable.
“Everything living in the path of the oil will be negatively impacted, from microscopic plankton to swimming turtles, fishes, dolphins, manatees and seabirds to all the sessile organisms living on coastlines where the oil comes ashore,” Walters said.
Scott Hagan, associate professor of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and director of the UCF Coastal Hydroscience Analysis, Modeling and Predictive Simulations Laboratory, worries about the vast flood plains of the Gulf states and the possibility of a hurricane hitting landfall during this year’s hurricane season, which begins June 1.
“A fast moving hurricane could literally swamp the landfall location with oil,” Hagan said.
For the Eco Advocates, a student organization that promotes awareness of environmental issues at UCF, the oil spill hits close to home.
Prior to the April 20 explosion, Eco Advocates had been actively pressuring legislatures to keep oil drilling off Florida’s coast and performing mock oil spills in front of the Student Union to inform the student body of the potential dangers and alternative energy usage.
“I really hope that we can all learn from this environmental disaster and keep drilling off the coasts of Florida,” said Brian Homberger, a UCF junior biology major and the president of Eco Advocates. “I think this catastrophe showed us that off shore drilling is still very dangerous to the environment, wildlife and local communities. Opening Florida’s coasts to drilling will absolutely not solve this country’s energy crisis.”
However, it is unlikely that an event like this will cause a cease in offshore drilling.
Peter Jacques, associate professor of political science at UCF, said that what is happening now is typical of past oil spills.
The pattern is for a reaction only when disaster strikes. Jacques explained that if gasoline prices rise significantly people would forget about the repercussions of drilling.
According to Jacques, an increase in prices at the pump will not be the only blow to the economy. The fishing and tourism industries are two major pillars of the economy for Gulf states.
Federal officials placed a fishing ban of a 46,000 square-mile chunk on the Gulf of Mexico.
As for Florida’s tourism industry, the state’s main source of revenue, the threat of oil has potential tourists thinking twice about vacation plans.
“Florida is one of the most visited states in the United States,” said Chad Persaud, a UCF sophomore political science major and team leader of the College Democrats at UCF. “We attract people from all over the world and our economy thrives on tourism. From Panama City Beach to the beaches of Key West, people are drawn to our waters.”
Katie Deines Fourcin, a spokeswoman for Expedia.com, told The New York Times that bookings to hotels on Florida’s West Coast dropped about 15 percent in the three weeks after the spill.
There is no telling what will happen to that percentage when oil reaches Florida.
“When I read about the oil spill, I knew that it could have great economic ramifications,” Levon Mikaelian, a UCF junior economics major, said. “Since Gulf states have large tourist industries, a loss of tourism-related revenue could lead to a loss of revenue in many sectors of their economies.”
As bleak as the outcome of the oil spill may seem, people everywhere are uniting to help with the effort to have it cleaned up.
Walters explained that many organizations are accepting long term volunteers to help clean Florida beaches of shoreline debris before oil washes up and creates toxic waste.
For a more local approach, Homberger encourages students to get involved with the environmental movement occurring at UCF.
“Students can do anything as simple as biking to class, carpooling, or taking the shuttle in order to decrease our dependence on petroleum,” Homberger said.