Cuba and the United States
reach a deal to help protect marine life 50 miles from The Keys.
WASHINGTON — Florida’s coral reefs and delicate marine environment could become less vulnerable to pollution from potential oil spills under a pact taking shape between the United States and Cuba.
The agreement would clear the way for American companies to provide the latest blowout preventers and other pollution controls to help stave off spills in Cuban waters and contain slicks before they ride the ocean currents to Florida.
The breakthrough would ease years of anxiety about oil exploration off the north coast of Cuba and help avoid the nightmare scenario of a giant spill less than 50 miles from the Florida Keys.
Environmentalists and oil-cleanup experts hope the two old adversaries complete the cooperative arrangement before Cuba resumes its hunt for black gold late next year or in 2017.
“Having the best technology sitting on the seafloor 5,000 feet down in the middle of the Florida Straits is the most sensible approach to preventing harm to the environment and the economy, both in the U.S. and in Cuba,” said Lee Hunt, former president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who is advising both sides.
Contingency plans to deal with a spill were discussed informally at a high-level U.S.-Cuban symposium in October. Both sides are moving toward a joint spill-response strategy — the latest example of attempts to find ways around the U.S. embargo, in this case to protect the watery environment.
The embargo, stoutly defended by Cuban-Americans and other influential members of Congress, prevents most American products and services from being used in Cuban territory. Recent attempts to tap underwater oil deposits north of the island raised fears of a spill near the Gulf Stream, a powerful current that rushes north along South Florida’s coral reefs and beaches.
Those fears were heightened by the massive Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which ruined the tourist season along the Gulf Coast and caused lasting damage to sea life. Some who helped clean up that mess attended last month’s symposium in Havana.
“A spill would impact the U.S. just like it would impact Cuba. Nobody wants a spill, and everybody wants to be safe. So it was a mutual goal,” said Richard Dodge, dean of oceanography at Nova Southeastern University. He advised the symposium participants on ocean currents and where they would carry an oil slick.
“Depending on where the spill occurs, it will either get sucked into the Loop Current and go into the Gulf of Mexico or spin off the Florida Keys and go as far north as the east coast of the United States,” Dodge said in an interview afterward.
Participants included officials from the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the Cuban Civil Defense and Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.
They discussed the possibility of labeling American products sent to Cuba, such as blowout preventers, as “pollution controls” rather than “drilling equipment” to avoid embargo restrictions.