The roughly 20 tar balls found washed ashore in the Florida Keys are brewing debate over whether the Gulf oil slick has, in fact, reached South Florida or whether they are the kind that routinely show up in remote beaches.
But, as Floridians wait for Coast Guard tests of the oil to determine its origin, the job of convincing tourists that the entire region is not, in fact, covered in oil just got a little more difficult.
"Well, I'm concerned about it, I think as every Floridian is,” said Florida Governor Charlie Crist, during a stop Tuesday in Miami. "And I think what we need to do is be patient and cautious. We have taken those tar balls, shipped them to New Haven, Connecticut, for the Coast Guard to test.
"Give us an opportunity to see if they've actually come from Deepwater Horizon. We don't know that yet. but we're on top of it."
Coast Guard Captain Patrick DeQuattro, at Coast Guard Station Key West, said the tar balls they found "range from the Dry Tortugas to 70 miles west to Key West to roughly the Marathon area, Bahia Honda State Park. Exposure to that type tar balls across approximately a hundred miles of the Florida Keys is unusual. I've been here a year. I've not had that type of exposure yet."
But old timers aren’t so sure.
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"Just because we had a few tar balls, that's not uncommon in the Keys," Key West Mayor Craig Cates said.
There's no good time for tourists to be scared away, especially when they incorrectly believe oil is washing up on South Florida shores.
"We're looking at one of the busiest weekends of the year, Memorial Day Weekend. So naturally everyone in this community is concerned," Marc Rossi, Key West bar and restaurant owner, said.
As oil spreads in the northern gulf, the federal fisheries agency has now shut down 46,000 square miles of fishing. Only a small part of it in the Florida Panhandle. And still, in relative terms, a small but growing part of the Gulf overall.
Aerial spotters are tracking a tendril of the slick now near the loop current. Once oil reaches the loop, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco says it will take roughly 7-10 days to reach Florida waters, longer to reach South Florida. And even once the oil is in the region, it will take certain wind and current conditions for it to reach beaches and mangroves near shore.
Scientists tell NBC Miami the longer the oil takes to arrive in South Florida, the more the oil itself changes, breaks down, gets weathered and becomes a little less toxic.
There are scores of companies, non-profits, experts and just regular people eager to help in South Florida. But it remains too early to tell what will happen.
