Some of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico isn't from the BP spill

CNN has this interesting report. It seemed likely that the tar balls had gotten to Florida too quickly. I had also written about the amount of oil that leaks naturally.

It may be hard to fathom, but even with gallons of oil spewing every minute from BP's broken well head in the Gulf of Mexico, not all the oil pollution in the Gulf is BP's fault.

First, blame Mother Nature. And that's actually good news, but we'll get back to that.

Second blame many of the ships that criss-cross that area. . . .

But even though many millions of gallons of crude oil have leaked into the Gulf, much of what is washing up on beaches near in and around the Gulf is not from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

"We've done a number of tarballs from Florida, Key West, Miami and so forth, none of which so far have matched the Deepwater Horizon," Gronlund said. "The tarballs that have been found on the beach in Florida are fuel oil." . . .

Now back to Mother Nature.

Some of the oil in the Gulf is natural seepage from the sea floor. The Coast Guard's head of research and development, Capt. Matt Sisson, explained that in the Gulf and other oil-rich spots in the world, crude oil bubbles up through the sea floor and into the Gulf Waters. . . .