[macpappy]

Obviously I'm a retired Coastie. I worked quite a few oil spills from various sources during my 21 years of active duty, include the Ixtoc Pemex rig blowout in 1980. There is a 99 percent chance that the tar balls in the Florida keys have absolutely nothing to do with this rig accident and spill. If you have a beach, you have tar balls washing ashore. As previously stated, oil seepage on the ocean floor does occur naturally.

Here's one thing I've learned. The damage from a major oil spill is always a lot less severe than what the news media and environmentalist/anti-oil/anti-drilling fanatics want you to believe. History has proven this time and again. Think about all the oil spilled during World War II because of U-boat activities. Read up on the Torrey Canyon spill off of England and the recovery of the affected coast line. Even the damage from the Exxon Valdez while extremely bad in the short term was not as bad in the long term as expected.

The media reports the way it does for one reason. They make more money. The anti's latch onto anything like this for one reason - to further their cause.