As Rick Outzen reports on BP’s gift for Florida’s media buy:

BP is giving Florida $25 million for advertising —the same amount it gave the state to help local governments fund their preparations for the BP Oil Spill. Am I the only one who sees the games being played here?

The ads will minimize the risks and help BP in its defense against government fines and lawsuits. It won’t help counties that are depleting their cash reserves.

Before the state’s tourism machine starts buying those ads, they should check the news, because the Coast Guard News [not officially associated with the US Coast Guard] reports Coast Guard Responds to tar balls in Key West. I checked and the major news organizations have confirmed the report.

The surface oil may have just reached the Loop, but it looks like some of the mass of oil that is below the surface has been in the Loop for days. Of course these tar balls could be from any of thousands of wells in the Gulf or a crude oil tanker, as readily as from the Well from Hell that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf every day, which is why we have to wait on tests.

The Panhandle has a little less to worry about today because they have screwed around so long that the oil is headed into the Loop Current, which means that Florida’s reef system, the Keys, and the Atlantic Coast are now in danger from the oil.

Because it is so significant to Gulf hurricanes, those of us who track the storms are familiar with the Loop. It is a warm water current and deep which is like a gas station for hurricanes. The Weather Underground has a primer on the current, which becomes the Gulf Stream after passing through the Florida Strait.

Today’s NASA image of the oil spill makes it rather obvious that oil is being sucked into the Loop. Dr Jeff Masters agrees: Oil enters the Loop Current and is headed to the Florida Keys.

This spill is large enough that it can destroy the state’s barrier reef, with plenty available to destroy Louisiana’s wet lands. I guess South Carolina will have to cancel those ads talking about Myrtle Beach being “oil free”, as there is no guarantee for any coastal area from the Gulf to Great Britain that borders on the Gulf Stream.

Looking at Alan Bowman’s modules via Elayne, I was planning to put up the “Fish” with a black background.  Badtux has the penguin module running in his sidebar.

When I watched the resource use during preview I decided against it.  No need to take up bandwidth telling people what they already know – that oil well is poisoning the Gulf.