Good News/Bad News in Latest Gulf 'Spills'

摘要

The US Coast Guard (USCG) District Eight, Sector New Orleans has been busy. On Saturday, 19 March 2011, the unit received several notifications regarding possible oil spills. The first call was received at 9:34 am, and reported a "rainbow sheen" 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) in length in the Gulf of Mexico. Two more reports followed. Bonny Schumaker, primary pilot and President of On Wings of Care, Inc., a California-based nonprofit organization, reported the largest slick, which she first sighted on 18 March 2011. The alleged spill was described as a 100-mile (160- kilometer)-long swath of a "dark substance floating on and beneath the surface of the water" in the Gulf, beginning just off the shore of Grand Terre Island, at the south end of Barataria Bay (Louisiana, USA).