Tag: Gulf Islands National Seashore

Gulf Coast–January 2011 Summary

Gulf Coast–January 2011 Summary

By |

My first day out, January 10th, yielded major oil at the surf zone. But this time in the form of a hardened shelf of crude. Recent winter storm waves had exposed the shelf and deposited oil from the bottom of the Gulf, according to a supervisor on one of the clean-up crews, on the beach. It was as bad as I’ve seen the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge since I begin documenting this disaster in May 2010. The only difference was it was 60 degrees cooler than the July and August temperatures that made it a living hell on the beaches with horrible smells; thick, gooey, melted petroleum coated sand and mats of oil floated in the Gulf then. Now at least it is hardened. It seems reasonable that NOW would be the time to remove the oil from the beach…right? But the clean-up crews are understaffed and sometimes not even present.

Two days later and sand, from a hefty north wind, had nearly covered the oil shelf. People might be tempted, in looking at this sight, to say, “It’s not so bad.” They just need to see what lies just beneath the surface to fully comprehend the amount of oil still present on the beach at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

Ft Morgan beach had some small tar balls but nothing else evident. But understand this: It depends on the day you visit, the way the wind is blowing, and the strength of the waves to see the truth about the amount of oil on the beach. My two visits to the national wildlife refuge clearly proved that.

The day I visited Ft. Morgan the wind was out of the north at 35mph and the temperature was 41 degrees coming across Mobile Bay. Thank goodness the North Carolina mountain winters have taught me how to stay warm in such conditions. There was a fair amount of shore birds on the Gulf beach including sanderlings, brown pelicans, willets, ruddy turnstones, and gulls. It was heartening to see a nice-size bird flock at Ft. Morgan, especially since the oil-laden beaches at the wildlife refuge, 10 miles east, were nearly vacant of birdlife.

Gulf State Park Pier beaches had been, or were in the process of being, deep-cleaned. There was some light oiling washing up on the beach but not many noticeable tar balls. There were birds present, although not in the typical winters numbers I would expect.

The foot ‘issues’ I have been documenting were evident in one gull in the flock there at Gulf State Park.

On this trip I was able to spend one day enjoying the coastal treasures I grew up with. Romar beach had been deep-cleaned and looked pretty good. Very few birds were present but the water appeared quite nice.

Alabama Point and the Gulf Islands National Seashore provided me with delightful hours that nurtured my weary spirit. I thought, as I wandered along the beaches, how strange it was that an ecosystem still struggling to recover and heal could provide me with such healing. It was nice to spend time connecting with the raw, intense beauty of the Gulf Coast.

My visit was a study in contrasts. One beach was heavily covered in oil while another might look okay. There was bird life on some beaches while it was absent on others. It’s difficult to form much of an opinion from four days of beach visits but it was very telling to see so much oil exposed one day and almost completely covered two days later. The summary for my January visit is this: There is much that remains hidden about the oil spill and recovery…and I mean that on many levels.

From Fort Morgan to Fort Pickens

From Fort Morgan to Fort Pickens

By |

Today I visited the Fort Morgan, Alabama, beach and other beaches along the route to Fort Pickens in Gulf Breeze Florida. The overall ‘appearance’ is pretty good considering what it looked like six weeks ago. Fort Morgan had many pelicans, gulls, terns and willets foraging along the shore. There were many bait fish in the surf zone which provided a feast for the birds and bigger fish as well as one dolphin I noticed.

There is a shelf of oil about half an inch thick that is buried under sand at the point of Ft Morgan. Also, there are millions of tiny tar balls scattered on the beach there.

As I was photographing at the point, a contractor for BP drove up on a four-wheeler and started talking. He said he just goes down to the point to read his paper. He jokingly asked me not to take his photograph because he’d get in trouble. The guy was really nice but my complaint all along with the crew at Ft Morgan has been the work ethic, or lack thereof. Mr. Safety Officer, BP is paying you to work, not sit and read your paper.

Next, I visited Romar Beach in Orange Beach, Alabama. It had been very heavily oiled earlier in the summer. Today, the sand was groomed and mostly white with only a small amount of discoloration. There was a very slight crude oil smell near the water, but very faint. Oil sank off shore here as it did in the wildlife refuge so there was a small amount of oily froth, but very slight.

There are still workers cleaning the beaches at Johnson Beach. But this wasn’t them. These guys were at Ft Pickens cleaning the beaches there. Both areas are in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The Johnson Beach crew was working at a very relaxed pace. (That’s a nice way to describe their work ethic). Both areas are using the sifting machines, just like Romar Beach and Gulf State Park beaches.

Finally, I visited Gulf State Park’s Alabama Point, near the Florida-Alabama line. The beaches here had small tar balls under groomed sand. It was a lovely afternoon on the shore there with salty air blowing briskly off the Gulf. It was a good place to end my whirlwind two day check of the places I have documented and will continue to document for the next year.

While there has been much progress made in cleaning the beaches along the Alabama and Florida coasts, there are still sunken patches of oil that continue to release toxins. I don’t want us to stick our heads in the sand and think that because the beaches appear clean, everything is fine.

Here are my main concerns: 1) There have been a lot of blue crabs along the Alabama coast that were killed. Six weeks ago they were lethargic in the surf zone. Now their carcasses are washed up on the beaches. The bottom feeders were and are being very badly affected. 2) There are no active coquina shells, that I could see. These are tiny bivalves that burrow into the sand and form a vital link in the food chain. This concerns me greatly. 3) The beaches that are ‘groomed’ are ones that are visited by people. The worst beaches, by far, of the seven I visited the past two days were part of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. At both locations in the refuge (Mobile Street and Ft Morgan) there were millions of tiny tar balls in the sand. Ft Morgan has a visible shelf of oil-sand mix and the Mobile St entrance area (near the hiking trail junction with the beach) has oily mousse continuing to wash in. I am concerned that wildlife habitat is being neglected in order to appease merchants desire to have tourists see white, groomed sand in the more populated beaches. Areas that we set aside for wildlife are just as important as areas humans visit. 4) People are fishing, crabbing, and shrimping here. The black oil I saw in the crabs washed up tends to point to a safety question. Do you want to risk being the top end of the food chain that gets the build-up of ALL the dispersant and crude oil toxins? It makes no sense to allow harvesting of seafood at this point. No common sense anyway. 5) There are still animals dying and I wonder why their carcasses are not collected and analyzed. BP is supposed to pay per bird, per turtle, per dolphin….but these deaths appear to being ignored. So the death counts will be incorrect.

Finally, I applaud the majority of contract workers who have worked hard to clean the beaches. Many of them have worked with dedication. All of them are risking their health and quite possibly their lives. You guys and gals have worked the front lines of this disaster and you have definitely made a difference. THANK YOU!

There is still work to do and we must depend on independent scientists who will take the samples, collect data and tell the truth about what is happening to the ecosystem along the beautiful Gulf Coast. We are depending on you, but more important, the wildlife–the innocents–are depending on you.

Turtle Prayers

Turtle Prayers

By |

Today the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center released a plan formed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA-Fisheries and the Florida Wildlife Commission to translocate an anticipated 700 sea turtle nest eggs this season along the Florida Panhandle and the Alabama Gulf Coast. This is not an event to be taken lightly as nest disturbance risks killing the eggs; however, given the oiled beaches and waters, biologists think this is the best plan for the potential hatchlings.
In this extraordinary plan, permitted surveyors search the beaches at night for sea turtle tracks. Since females come on land only to lay eggs, the tracks lead to nests. The nests are marked and left to incubate until a point is reached in the incubation cycle where disturbance is less likely to injure eggs.

Experts will then place the eggs in special containers and transport them to a secure, climate-controlled location. Once the hatchlings emerge, they will be released on the east-central coast of Florida.

Under normal conditions a retrieval, removal and remote hatching of an entire season’s nesting would never be considered but given the unlikely survival of hatchlings due to oil in the water and on the shore, scientists feel they must make this drastic move.

The majority of sea turtles nesting along the northern Gulf Coast are loggerheads but we also have Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and green turtles.

As you go through your day say a little prayer for the mother turtles coming ashore to lay eggs. They are moving through toxic waters onto shores that are sometimes covered in oil and dispersant chemicals. Just the task of surviving to lay eggs this year is difficult. Then…say more prayers for the babies as they lay safely tucked inside their eggs. May their ocean dreams be filled with much love.

Image of green sea turtle in rehab with helpers Hans (holding turtle) and Tim Tristan, DVM …Texas.

Sweeping Our Past Clean, Preparing for the Future

Sweeping Our Past Clean, Preparing for the Future

By |

While visiting Gulf Islands National Seashore today I observed workers sweeping tiny tar balls into dust pans. As I stood gazing out over the Gulf, watching billions of baby blobs of oil roll in the surf, I thought that it is time we clean up our past mistakes and clear the way for a new future.

I’m NOT saying hide our mistakes, like BP is doing by using dispersant, but own them, clean them up and lay the groundwork for a new and better future. We must learn from our past, both the mistakes and the successes. In our nurturing the earth, we create fertile ground for a brighter, healthier future.

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

By |

It was a stormy day but the dramatic clouds and wind added to the rugged beauty of my visit to Gulf Islands National Seashore. I visited Ft. Pickens and Perdido Key areas and both places were jazzed with contract employees working to clean beaches. Workers were even using brooms to clean areas. I was very impressed.

Least terns were nesting on the open sand, seemingly content with their newly hatched babies. Pelicans foraged offshore. It was a wonderful visit to these pristine areas.

Then I arrived back in Alabama. Less than 10 miles from the super-busy-bees in the National Seashore, Gulf State Park beaches at Alabama Point were covered in tar balls the size of my fist. And worse, an oily sheen covered the surface and oil mousse was washing on shore.

I traveled another 5 miles or so to the beach pavilion at Gulf State Park and when I arrived at the end of the boardwalk, the hot, heavy smell of diesel hit me. It was so strong I could taste it on my tongue. The oily froth was thick there and I stood, choking on fumes and sobs.

So why are tar balls littering Alabama’s beaches and Florida has crews that are organized, energetic and are literally sweeping the beaches? Can someone please explain the difference?

And…WHY ARE PEOPLE ALLOWED TO SWIM ON THE BEACHES IN FRONT OF CONDOS IN GULF SHORES, ALABAMA? There was oily froth washing ashore and people were swimming in it. I suppose we can assume people are basically self-destructive or naive but is the health department so afraid of angry, hurting merchants that they turn their heads when people are being coated in oil? Come on! Let’s show some intelligent responsibility and protect those too ignorant to protect themselves. They trust ‘officials’ to keep them safe! I think their lives are worth more than their money!