Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE, Fla. -- Waves of gooey tar blobs were washing ashore on the white sand of the Florida Panhandle and nearby Alabama beaches Friday as a slick from the BP spill moved closer to shore.

Spotters who had been seeing a few tar balls in recent days found a substantially larger number starting before dawn on the beaches of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and nearby areas, a county emergency official said. The park is a long string of connected barrier islands near Pensacola.

Keith Wilkins from Escambia County emergency management said tar patties were are pretty thick on parts of the beach, as much as one every foot.

Small gobs of reddish brown oil washed up in the surf for the first time in nearby Gulf Shores, Ala., on Friday morning and a petroleum smell tinged the air.

Sam Champion from Good Morning America was in Pensacola Friday morning and picked up globs of tar off of the famously white beaches.

WATCH:

Officials have said it is inevitable oil will eventually wash up on Panhandle beaches after a slick from the Deepwater Horizon spill was spotted about 9 miles offshore this week. The edge of the spill had moved to four miles off the coast Thursday, Gov. Charlie Crist said after a flyover.

Crist said the news of Friday's growth in tar balls was "very disturbing."

"Obviously, it's not the kind of news that we want to hear," Crist said on CNN's "American Morning."

The bad news doesn't end there. Dan Froomkin reports that "computer modeling study released Thursday suggests that some of that oil might soon extend along thousands of miles of the Atlantic coast."

WATCH:

The researchers project the oil to spread up to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina before turning east towards Europe, but officials as far north as New Jersey are developing spill contingencies.

In Gulf Shores, Ala., the goo was isolated to a few areas, but a faint smell of oil hung in the breeze.

"I really smelled it down there," said Jennifer Powell, combing the beach for shells with her husband. "It was like it was burning my nose a little bit."

The Powells, from Russellville, Ky., had planned to return to the beach later this summer, but now they're not sure they want to come back.

"You won't be able to get in the water, and it's going to get all over you and all," she said. "I don't think I want my kids in that."

Cleanup crews were nowhere to be seen at the public beach.

Comments

[ConvictMedia]

12:23 PM on 06/06/2010

I grew up in Miami, Florida.

Funny thing is I suppose it must have been mid 70's, I used to go to Crandon and South beach with my dad and sometimes stepped in "tar" is what we called it and not "oil pollution" (I guess the propagand machine was runny well back then w/out the internet and youtube).

I know now what it was, not some natural phenomena like a purple jelly fish you step on, but industrial pollution from an oil spill.

You know, the priviledged elite have taken over all public access to the beaches in South beach - you need to pay to park, walk around, and if your not going to a restaurant or night club, or to your beach side condo, then forget about it.

Public access - true - free public access to the beaches has been a thing of the past. So, lets let those beach side homes, condos and businesses bask in their elite, wealthy, and now oily shores.

I wonder if Barbara Streisand is thinking about selling her ocean front property anytime soon.

It appears that the fresh ocean breezes are a thing of the past, and that nice natural sound of the ocean waves crashing agaist the shore is just another reminder of the toxic spew, and gases that are blowing in to cause biological tissue damage to all living things.

[hollybork]

06:03 AM on 06/07/2010

Good post.Fanned.

I, like you, have seen over the years the globs of oil and not known what they were. We have been such naive sheep in this country. The damage from this spill is incalculable and we (at least I am guilty of this having read that it was SO SAFE BLAH BLAH) have not paid much attention to the impact of ocean drilling on our natural resources, relying on the EPA and MMS to watch over our interests. I hope we will not be that stupid again.

By the way, your third and fourth paragraph make me want to cry....

[Schoolgirl666]

08:59 AM on 06/06/2010

Dear Oil Slick,

Please stop at all states whose representatives have been insisting on off-shore oil drilling. They deserve to see the results of their wishes firsthand.

[Randy Shepherd]

12:43 AM on 06/06/2010

sarah's new saying should be "flow, baby, flow"

[Telemachus]

11:15 PM on 06/06/2010

Was that a menopause joke?

[Randy Shepherd]

02:24 AM on 06/07/2010

now that's funny!!

[tominnyc]

01:52 PM on 06/05/2010

Have you all run Google Earth just to see how much info they are giving when you click on the gulf of mexico Oil Spill red-colored "icon" you can add layers but VERY good videos from

http://www.mission-blue.org/ as well when you zoom in

[Mechelle Gray]

01:05 PM on 06/05/2010

I'm no SCIENTIST, METEOROLOGIST but:

Imagine what will happen when the HURRICANES hit ... all this OIL will go EVERYWHERE.
(in the air, on houses, cars, land ... sheeshhh!!)

Isn't the season right around the corner?

[tominnyc]

01:53 PM on 06/05/2010

Yes and apparently the BP benzene in the clouds can bet set aflame from lightning

[hollybork]

05:41 PM on 06/05/2010

That is cool. Benzene ignited clouds. Tar raining down on the Southern states while birds fall from the sky and fish wither and die.

Have we reached the tipping point of global extinction?

Add to the land and atmospheric effects the vast dead spots in the ocean where the drifting underwater clouds of methane crystallized petroleum hydrates deplete the oxygen.

Life cannot go on in the sea with such oxygen loss.

Where legions of deep diving fish like yellow fin tuna, octopus and even whales will die. Where milleniums of built up coral reefs will be instantly smothered. The plankton, urchin, shrimp, jellyfish all wiped out in vast dead tracts like death valley of the sea.

The carbon exchange cycle of the earth will be disrupted. The perennial balance is being upset. This is cataclysmic, like something you read in the history of the earth when the coal fields of Siberia went up in flame from volcanic action, or Lake Bonneville breaking off the rim separating it from the sea and pouring itself out into the gulf, revealing the Colorado formation. Or like the asteroid event in the Yucatan than extinguished most of the life on earth 70 million years ago.

Compared to the impact on the earth, the destruction of species, I am not so concerned about the inconvenience of swimmers and sunbathers mentioned in this story. The death of the ecosystem, however, is something to contemplate and mourn.

[TheAlchemist]

12:56 PM on 06/05/2010

I'll be interested, over time, in seeing how the Arts Community honors this catasrophe.


Hubbard Street, for example, could certainly bring movement to the very disturbing images of oil on animals...

[TheAlchemist]

12:54 PM on 06/05/2010

On another sad subject, I've made my beloved 17yo feline companion's appointment with destiny for next week.

I'm feeling waves of sadness...

[Mechelle Gray]

01:00 PM on 06/05/2010

Awww ... 17 years ... ** cyberhug **

[barney123]

02:35 PM on 06/05/2010

So sorry for that, be positive.

[TheAlchemist]

12:53 PM on 06/05/2010

"For when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

--John Muir

[TheAlchemist]

12:52 PM on 06/05/2010

Heartbreaking.
Too much to take.

[TheAlchemist]

12:51 PM on 06/05/2010

These marine-life-tarred-and-feathered photos are appalling.

[nobleday]

11:09 AM on 06/05/2010

Obama is partly responsible for the mess in the Gulf at this point. He has to be the least involved and most divisive "leader" we have ever had. No wonder he loves his job...it's just one party and one international trip after another. Camp Obama is the priority. In Obama's world who really cares about the Gulf?

Someone needs to make a list of all of the other priorities this man has had since the day the well exploded...it's disgraceful. No matter what spin Obama tries to put on it...the truth is still there and it's not pretty. I have no respect left for this man.

The government's finger-pointing, hearings to find fault, government lawyers running down to threaten suing, and other divisive actions don't bring people together to get good things done. The Obama administration's actions have led people to hunker down and run from the disaster.

If we had a REAL leader, they would have IMMEDIATELY gotten every scientist, engineer, and inventor down to the Gulf to problem solve this disaster...people working together on any and every solution possible. They should have started implementing every and any good solution immediately to see which ones worked.

But no...Obama has lawyers running around and people throwing blame around. No wonder things aren't getting better. Seminar-leader in Chief...Obama can talk a good game, but gets nothing done in the Gulf.

[digimom]

11:42 AM on 06/05/2010

"In 2008, the Supreme Court gave Exxon Mobil a $2 billion gift by reducing the punitive damage award from $2.5 billion to $507.5 million for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Roberts Court's willingness to invent a rule capping punitive damages against Exxon does not bode well for those hoping to hold BP accountable for this most recent disaster."

"A lawyer representing BP in current and pending litigation over the Gulf leak was, up until last year, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court -- a court that was friendly to BP in litigation over a 2005 major refinery fire. Right now BP is trying to have all litigation heard in Texas, where even federal courts pay deference to the oil industry, and pushing for specific, industry-sympathetic judges." PFAW

Would you like to dispute this?????? Google it!!!!!!!!!

[digimom]

11:46 AM on 06/05/2010

Also... factcheck.org

[Aikaterina]

10:55 AM on 06/05/2010

Florida has more electoral votes than Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana. Elections can't be won without capturing the state of FL. Florida also has huge fishing, real estate and tourist industries that will be obliterated by oil slicks on their shores. Eventually, the oil will reach the Gulf Stream and travel up the East Coast and into the Atlantic.

Maybe now the administration will take this spill as seriously as it should have from day one. I'm not blaming the president personally, but the entire administration (cabinet, departments and agencies) should have been down there, demanding access to the site, accurately assessing what is happening, the full extent of the spill, rather than relying on BP's information, or allowing them to dictate. Journalists are barred access, and locals aren't allowed to take photographs, as local law-enforcement, and even the Coast Guard claims it's "BP's oil," as if they own the place.

Castigating BP, and sending government attorneys down there will only ensure BP puts further restrictions on who can have access, and more stringently limit information. Right now, the main objective should be to concentrate resources on stopping the leak, and cleaning up the oil.

[Hank007]

12:55 PM on 06/05/2010

No one seems to be able to tell me, who exactly in the government is an expert in deep sea oil leaks? Is there even a single person who knows more about this than the people who created it?

[Mechelle Gray]

01:02 PM on 06/05/2010

... and what's your point again? Who in the administration office is TRAINED to handle this?

Please tell me ... pleeeeeaaaaaaasseee!!!

[JeanRR]

10:49 AM on 06/05/2010

And why is this a shock?

[blackjack19]

10:08 AM on 06/05/2010

I've heard quite a few people over the last few days suggesting that this event could be the catalyst needed to finally start making some serious steps to reduce our dependency on oil. Sorry, but I just don't see it. Once this leak is contained, and all efforts can be focused on the clean-up, this disaster will eventually be forgotten. It won't be forgotten by those living along the effected coasts, but by the majority of American living in the rest of the country.

After 9/11, we were told that things would never be the same. For awhile, it seemed they were right, but not anymore. Aside from it taking a little longer at the airport, things don't seem that different to me.

We're still at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and you'd hardly know it.

I think people just don't like dealing with unpleasant news, so they keep their heads down and try to ignore it as much as they can. I guess it's easy not to get angry enough to demand change when you refuse to pay attention.

[JoeMar]

10:05 AM on 06/05/2010

Well it looks like this is finally getting serious.

Ecology and livelihoods are one thing,

but don't mess with the summer homes of corporate America.

[TOPCAT711]

10:26 AM on 06/05/2010

Very true.

By the time this hits Vanderbuilt Beach, in Naples Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama will be put at the bottom of the clean-up list.

[Mechelle Gray]

01:02 PM on 06/05/2010

Exactly!!!