Oil from the Gulf Coast spill could sweep northward to the Carolinas within a few weeks if the situation doesn't improve, some experts say.
Others are calling it a remote possibility – saying their biggest worry is for the N.C. fishing industry, which depends on Gulf Coast oysters and shrimp in the off season.
The spill is at the top of the "very energetic" Loop Current, a part of the Gulf Stream that sends water south along the western Florida shelf, around the state and northward along the East Coast, said Jerald Ault, a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami.
"The net result is, the potential for dispersion is very high," he said.
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