• Submitted by: admin
• Environment
• international
• 05 / 19 / 2010

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WASHINGTON -- The sprawling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is prompting concern in Cuba, which boasts one of the Caribbean's most pristine coral reefs, thick mangroves and nesting areas for green sea turtles.

Cuban government officials called U.S. oceanographers looking for assistance last week, the scientists said, and the State Department confirmed Tuesday that ``low, technical level'' talks are underway to help Cuba respond if the sheen should move close to its shores.

But environmentalists note a lack of formal ties with the country could hamper efforts to get assistance to Cuba, and renewed a call to the Obama administration to engage in talks with Cuba.

``We simply can't afford to not communicate on the environment,'' said Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund. ``The economic and ecological impact, if and when, it reaches the loop current could be significant and we don't have any formal mechanism to respond or communicate.''

A State Department official said the U.S. and Cuba -- which have a cooperative agreement on hurricanes -- are ``exchanging information and looking at avenues for further information exchange.''

Alberto Gonzalez Casals, a spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, said the country would be ``ready to prevent this kind of oil spill.''

``I can tell you we are aware of the situation, we are preparing in any case of the oil spill coming to Cuba to take measures,'' he said. He added that Cuba doesn't expect to be affected, but is in a ``position to cooperate with the United States.''

A group of U.S. scientists who have been working on marine research and conservation issues with Cuban officials for nearly a decade are pulling together information for their peers in Cuba, said David Guggenheim, a senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation in Washington.

Guggenheim has created an online resource page and is providing Cuba with satellite images and models to track the spill's trajectory, as well as helping to develop a clean up plan, including lessons on how to rescue oiled sea turtles.

``We're doing the best we can to digest the huge amount of information that's out there,'' Guggenheim said, noting that if the countries had traditional ties, U.S. government agencies would likely be sharing information.

``The fact that it's Cuba creates a rat's nest of red tape and bureaucracy and inaction on just about anything,'' he said.

Guggenheim said he's uncertain whether Cuba has preventive booms and other equipment to handle a spill. He said he's asked the Cuban government and is waiting for a response.

But Guggenheim, who said Cuba's coral reef presents researchers with lessons for protecting coral elsewhere, said he views the cleanup as a U.S. responsibility.

``We caused this mess and how are we going to help them deal with it,'' he said.

Whittle said his group had pressed the Obama administration to establish talks with Cuba on environmental issues because Cuba is interested in drilling off its coast -- just 90 miles from Key West. News reports last week said the Spanish oil company, Repsol, has announced plans to explore Cuba's offshore water, after suspending a previous survey six years ago.

``Historically we've used oil and gas issues to argue that it makes sense to establish ties because Florida is so close,'' Whittle said. ``No one really imagined that Cuba would be on the receiving end.''

In a Brookings Institution paper posted Tuesday, Jorge Pinon, a visiting research fellow with the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University and attorney Robert Muse, write that while the government is looking to prevent further disasters like the one in the Gulf, its current policies ``foreclose the ability to respond effectively to future oil disasters -- whether that disaster is caused by companies at work in Cuban waters, or is the result of companies operating in U.S. waters.''

BY LESLEY CLARK

Source: www.miamiherald.com