FAIRHOPE, Ala. — More oil was spotted late this week near the Alabama coast as crews continued to prepare for the worst. Perhaps the sighting that received the most attention was at Fort Morgan, where coin-sized globs of oil danced along the shallow bottom near the mouth of Mobile Bay. Some of that oil was coming ashore Friday.

Several attempts to stretch boom materials across the channel leading into the bay were unsuccessful in recent weeks because the flow of water from the bay to the Gulf of Mexico has been too swift. Some experts say that strong current could help prevent, or at least delay, oil from penetrating very far into the bay itself.

Meanwhile on Friday, BP engineers were assessing whether a lower marine riser package (LMRP) placed above the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blowout preventer (BOP) would be successful in siphoning off much of the oil escaping into the Gulf. The riser pipe was cut away from the BOP earlier this week.

“The placement of the containment cap is another positive development in BP’s most recent attempt to contain the leak, however, it will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment,” said Adm. Thad Allen, National Incident Commander. “Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue our aggressive response operations at the source, on the surface and along the Gulf’s precious coastline.”

Early reports prior to press time indicated the method is having only moderate success, with much less than half of the oil being captured and piped to the surface to be loaded aboard tanker ships.

The company worked yesterday to close four vents at the top of the containment cap in hopes little oil would continue to escape once that task was completed. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said he was hopeful the procedure would be successful.

Stopping the flow of oil and mitigating the damage has taken on added urgency as more birds and other wildlife are found covered in oil. An oiled, baby starling was found Thursday in the middle of Perdido Beach Boulevard in Orange Beach, fighting for survival. It was removed and taken to a rehabilitation center for assessment.

The Obama administration is not waiting on BP to make good on its promise to cover the damages. Officials sent to BP and other companies allegedly involved in the disaster a $69.09 million bill directly related to response and recovery operations.

The oil spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the nation’s largest environmental disaster. Three independent methods were used by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) to estimate the amount of flow, with the overlap between them being 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. The FRTG will continue studying the flow closely to better determine a new flow rate after the LMRP operation is complete.

Continuing her fourth trip to the Gulf Coast this week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson held a briefing for around 45 mayors and elected officials from Alabama and Mississippi on the EPA’s ongoing efforts to protect local residents and monitor air, water and sediment quality in the region. Jackson also toured the Incident Command Post in Mobile, and visited an EPA mobile air monitoring vehicle near Dauphin Island.

The Baldwin County Commission began implementing its local area contingency plan Wednesday by providing additional booming protection to the county’s sensitive environmental areas.

CrowderGulf, under contract to the county, placed 44,100 feet of boom (14,500 feet containment, 29,600 feet sorbent) at Weeks Bay, Bon Secour Bay, Bon Secour River, Plash Island, St. Andrews Bay, Wolf Bay and Ono Island.

The company will place the roughly 36,000 feet of remaining boom in Bay Minette Creek, Bon Secour, St. Andrews Bay, Arnica Bay, Wolf Bay, Graham Bayou, Mifflin Creek, Sandy Creek, Owens Bayou, Hammock Creek, Soldiers Creek and Palmetto Creek.

The commission was able to implement the plan using a portion of the $3 million the panel received from the state, part of Alabama’s $25 million grant from BP. Many of the areas identified for boom placement were not among those included in the Unified Command’s area contingency plan, but are considered environmentally sensitive.

NOAA’s forecast through Sunday suggests the oil sheen is shifting east of Fort Morgan, toward the Florida panhandle. Additional tar balls and oil globules are still expected to make landfall between the peninsula and Gulf Shores, however.

The NOAA map’s Zone of Uncertainty has shifted well inside of Mobile Bay, but according to Unified Command officials in Mobile, it is unlikely tar balls will reach the Eastern Shore.

Assistant Fairhope Public Works Director Ken Eslava said sentinel testing being continuously run in Mobile Bay indicates a significant and continued outflow current, or flushing effect, of the bay as a result of swollen upstate rivers discharging through the Mobile, Tensaw, Apalachee and Blakeley rivers.

This test involves dropping electronic sentinel balls containing GPS transmitters into the water, according to Eslava. He said the sentinels can be tracked electronically and plotted on a map. Because the sentinel balls have varying levels of buoyancy, water flow is monitored at various depths.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, meeting with area officials and the Mobile Unified Command Thursday, set goals to dramatically improve both shoreline protection efforts and the claims process for recovering losses resulting from this incident.

Operations at Pier Street continue, Eslava said, with maintenance and response efforts continuing.

The Fairhope Booming Strategy was presented to the City Council Friday morning in a special-called meeting. Mayor Tim Kant sought authorization from the City Council to engage a contractor to execute the protective booming plan along a portion of the Eastern Shore. The boom was to be placed at a point just north of the Fairhope Yacht Club at Fly Creek, and continue south to the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa.

Eslava said the protective measure includes two layers of boom (one outside layer of 24-inch containment boom and an inside layer of 8-inch absorbent boom). Once approved, he expected the operation could begin almost immediately.

Estimates for this deployment are 22,000 linear feet of containment boom and 25,000 linear feet of absorbent boom. The plan’s cost is to be covered by Fairhope’s share of the BP block grant awarded to the state.

Eslava urged anyone who would like to volunteer in the recovery effort to acquire the necessary credentialing in order to assist in wildlife cleaning, oil cleanup activities and to take part in the vessels of opportunity program.

He said Mobile Bay is still accessible for fishing, swimming and boating, and noted the Pier Street boat ramp remains open at this time.

Spanish Fort Mayor Joe Bonner said Thursday’s meeting between BP executives, state officials and the leadership of each of the coastal communities affected by the oil spill sent a clear message to the oil giant.

“The proof is going to be in the pudding. If the voices raised didn’t capture BP’s attention, nothing will. It’s the first time I’ve heard high-pitched voices from some of our leadership, and they sent a strong message. The next couple of days are going to be critical in determining if BP heard it or not,” Bonner said.

Overhauling an inefficient and often inaccessible claims process topped the list of concerns as did the use of out-of-town labor. Bonner said it is his understanding Gov. Riley has received assurances from BP both problems will be addressed.

“Why in the world do we have boats from Georgia and Maine putting out boom and checking for oil, when we’ve got boaters in our own hometowns sitting there who can’t go out and earn a living,” Bonner said, adding, “If checks on some of these claims are not put out in the next two to three days to take some of the pressure off some of these fishermen who are not allowed to get out there and catch fish, things — especially in the communities on the front lines like Orange Beach, Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores and Bayou La Batre — are going to go from bad to worse.”

The most damaging result to date, however, has been in the tourism industry, he said, where the aforementioned front-line mayors are forced to not only anticipate and plan for the encroaching oil but do so while as incessant media reports fuel steady cancellations to an area dependent on tourist dollars.

“It was reported to us that grocery stores are advertising (items) on shelves and in freezers are ‘not from the Gulf of Mexico,’ and that hurts more than you can imagine. There are 16,000 rental units in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, and every day their cancellations continue. Those are clean dollars in a community that turn seven times before they leave. It hurts everybody — the city, the county, the schools, the sheriffs, the small businesses,” Bonner said. “If those dollars are not turned from Memorial Day to mid-August, that’s 70 percent of people’s business down there. I think BP got that message from those front-line mayors, and they also got the message from the seafood and real estate industries.”

In Daphne, Emergency Management Coordinator Chip Martin said that he will be holding training sessions for city workers to instruct them in dealing with possible hazardous contamination. He added that a variety of response options are still being prepared, and there is continuing monitoring of the situation.

Staff writers Kelli M. Dugan and Simon Duffy contributed to this report.