Time magazine article by Nathan Thornburg

A small island in the middle of a big ocean, Key West has always made a virtue of its isolation. In 1982, for example, an onerous Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Route 1, which links the Keys to mainland Florida, resulted in the island's declaring itself the autonomous Conch Republic. This was, of course, mostly a joke

Keysspill.com is ramping up efforts to protect the Florid Keys reef system from any potential impact from the Gulf Oil Spill.

Keysspill.com volunteers head out into the Florida Keys mangroves