The US government and BP on Thursday started a limited evacuation of 'specialized vessels' working on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill due to a looming storm, the Coast Guard said. The first evacuations were ordered after the National Hurricane Center said a tropical depression hovering over the Caribbean could affect Florida's Gulf Coast within 36 hours. 'The protection of the equipment and crew is paramount to ensure maximum ability to respond to any new challenges a storm may pose to the enormous mission,' said a statement from Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft. In a press briefing, Zukunft said the current evacuation affected only a few vessels and a decision on any full-scale evacuation would be taken by the US official overseeing the spill response later Thursday. 'Admiral (Thad) Allen will make that announcement and that will be for vessels at the well site. I have already made the decision for a number of our Vessels of Opportunity,' he said, referring to a disaster response program. A full-scale evacuation could delay by almost two weeks the final operation to plug BP's runaway well, which has unleashed millions of barrels of crude on Gulf Coast shorelines in one of America's worst ever environmental disasters. If Allen ordered an evacuation, it could take 10-12 days to get operations back up and running once the storm passes. But Zukunft said it was far from clear that the weather system would require a halt to all operations. 'The updates that I've been receiving twice a day do not indicate that this is an imminent hurricane or tropical storm and so that certainly works better within my comfort zone,' he said. So far, crews have been ordered to begin 'evacuating specialized vessels from the path of any severe weather to prevent damage and ensure that oil recovery operations can resume as soon as possible after a storm,' the Coast Guard statement said. 'Additionally, boom is being removed from marsh areas where oil is not threatening the shore to prevent damage from the heavy equipment getting pushed into the delicate area by strong winds and high tides.' The 'repositioning' was designed to protect 'people, boats, boom and other equipment while planning for the safe and speedy resumption of oil spill recovery after a storm,' the statement said. 'This particular weather system has been somewhat fickle,' Zukunft said, adding that a decision to evacuate operations would have to balance safety concerns against the prospect of finally sealing the well. 'Those are the trade-off decisions that are being made. Very serious decisions. But we'll err on the side of safety,' he said. 