Old Grand-Dad Whiskey Bottles and Leaking Gulf Oil

Bobby Thompson is a Texan, a scientist, and a man rich in life experiences. In the early 1960’s he participated in a research project in which thousands of Old Grand-Dad Whiskey Bottles with return mail addresses sealed inside were tossed into the Gulf Sea at sites around Pass a la Outre, Louisiana. The results not only mapped currents within the Gulf, but also demonstrated that many of the bottles floated on currents that ultimately carried them to Ireland. The findings of this simple experiment highlight the potential for the oil now spewing into the Gulf to contaminate beaches all along the path of the Gulf Stream, which originates in the Gulf of Mexico and passes along the eastern coast of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.