Moderated by Last Stand's Amy Lachat Lynch, the program featured four speakers.  DeeVon Quirolo, Reef Relief's Executive Director, described current legislation in Congress that would open up the eastern Gulf of Mexico and other fragile marine areas around the U.S. to oil and gas drilling. 

Quirolo showed graphs of the Gulf Loop Current in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico in the area of proposed drilling operations.  “The current would carry routine drilling muds from such operations into the Lower Florida Keys and then be carried up the Gulfstream along the reef tract.  Accidental spills would add to the systematic degradation of water quality, tar balls on the beaches, and diminished habitat as a result of such pollution. This would further endanger our Keys coral reefs and destroy our commercial fisheries and tourism.”

Don DeMaria, a noted Keys commercial fisherman, diver, and underwater photographer, emphasized how devastating oil operations in the eastern Gulf would be, not only to the Keys, but to vast stretches of Florida's west coast.

George Neugent, Monroe County commissioner, brought an interesting perspective to the discussion.  Once a card-carrying member of the American Petroleum Institute, Neugent got out of the oilfield service business in his native Louisiana when he moved to the Keys.  He feels strongly that expanded oil exploration in the eastern Gulf could be disastrous to the Keys.

Bill Becker, US1 Radio's News Director, lent great historical perspective to the forum by recounting the incredibly strong display of universal opposition to oil drilling near the Keys when it was a serious threat in the late 80s.  Becker described "Black Friday" in 1989, when the federal Mineral Management Service held a public hearing on the oil drilling plan.  The day of the hearing, many Key West businesses closed, draped their stores in black, and posted a “No Valdez in the Keys” graphic printed by the Key West Citizen.

Please patronize Sarabeth and tell them Last Stand and Reef Relief sent you.