The Forbidden Zone of SW Florida. We in SW Florida are located in the best place possible in Florida. The #1 concern today is over the Gulf Oil spill. But, we are looking very good. Not only does the Gulf loop current stay away from our shore, BP has the leak under control and is cleaning the water.
I didn’t know until recently that their are organisms in the water that feed on the oil. Over time this helps dissipate what is not picked up.
A team of researchers from the University of South Florida, Scripps Oceanographic Institute, Florida State University, and the Minerals Management Service (Yang et al. 1999) identify SW Florida as the ” Forbidden Zone”. This project placed over 300 passive drifters at various locations in the northern Gulf, from the Mississippi-Alabama border eastward to off Cedar Key, Florida, and tracked their changes in location via satellite.
Here is the link for the map of the passive drifters placed in the Gulf and the path that they took. This is what identified SW Florida as the “Forbidden Zone” http://www.fgcu.edu/CWI/files/Forbidden_Zone_CWI.pdf .
So, come on down. The water is clear, the weather is great and the deals are plentiful. Boating, fishing and our beaches are all top notch.