He said that where this happened was pretty far away from Moody Gardens where the swim takes place. He personally thinks that the swim will still happen. He did say though that the currents could bring the oil that way, but does not think that it will happen.
Let’s quantify this. The oil slick as of yesterday had traveled 17 miles south, into the gulf. Offats Bay (where the IM swim is held) is 8 miles to the SW. It comes off of West Bay which is west of the spill site. So much is dependent on the wind and currents. It would need to travel west before it would enter Offats Bay.
Now before anyone thinks the focus is about the IM Swim, understand that the ship channel is closed. The IM swim probably doesn’t even move the meter for the Coast Guard and the Texas Land Office which are the primary federal and state agencies involved. According to the Houston paper this morning, 11,000 ships per month travel through the ship channel. There are hundreds of ships waiting. They state that the economic impact of the closure is about $7 million per day per ship. If the ship channel stays closed for more than a few days, they anticipate a spite in the cost of gas in the U.S. 12% of the U.S. gas is refined nearby.
This is no small matter. They have dozens of vessels skimming the oil and have used over 69,000 feet of containment boom and many hundreds of people hustling to contain the oil which the CG has stated is impossible due to the wind and choppy waters.
What you see in the pics below is the sheen it has released. This is thick, sludgy oil that tends to float below the surface. They can’t use chemicals to break it up because it is ineffective with this type of sludge oil.
Hundreds of oil tankers, cargo ships, cruise liners are in a holding pattern in the gulf waiting to get into port.
This is what the sludge looks like.