Grand Isle, Louisiana
by Philippe
June 4th, 2010
June 4, 2010
The day started early as we left New Orleans in the hot muggy morning light. The drive to Grand Isle takes about two hours, plenty of time to contemplate what I was about to see. It had been a week since I last in Grand Isle and I had heard things were getting worse, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Once we made it to the southern part of Louisiana, about an hour into the trip, we started to see signs advertising small shops closed due to dwindling fish supplies and others pleading with the government and BP to help them feed their children. By the time we got to Grand Isle and met the team there was a sense of frustration and anger that was palpable amongst the people milling about the marina.
We boarded the boat and headed out into Barataria Bay, the home of the most fertile oyster and shrimp and fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, our destination was several small islands where birds congregate. As we pulled up to the shore we saw oily booms washed up on the beach and thick red oil covering the sand along the shoreline. A few hundred yards down was a small heron covered in reddish colored oil, thicker than molasses. As soon as I looked at the bird I knew she was waiting to die, shivering and too weak to stand. I knew this was just the beginning. Further along we saw more birds whose normally bright white feathers were stained orange and knew it wouldn’t be long for them either.
Soon a dark cloud rolled in above and we hurried back to the boat only to get caught moments later in a squall that threatened to flip the small boat that had ferried us to the island. A grueling ride back to port left us drenched in the oily water splashing over the bow of the boat. As I jumped off the boat the taste of oil was still in my mouth and we wasted no time drying off. We didn’t have much time before we had to drive back to New Orleans to fly to Florida and so we interviewed several of the fishermen at the marina and headed to the main beach on the Gulf side of the island.
As soon as we arrived I was greeted by a horrible sight, a beach covered in thick blotches of oil as far as the eye could see and barely anyone on shore attempting to clean it up. Now I know why everyone was so frustrated, the oil had reached the beach, which was bad enough, but there seemed to be little effort to clean it. Soon, two uniformed individuals asked us to leave the beach ‘for our own safety’ and ushered us away but I knew I would be back within a week. From what I saw that day, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:47 am
1) With so many folks out of work, how can BP be short on cleanup manpower?
2) Why haven’t we heard about an industry-wide program to require every oil platform to have a functioning emergency shutoff valve?
3) I’m wondering if citizens are going to demand focus on non oil-based energy source legislation? We seem to be poisoning the entire planet.
June 10th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
[...] grandson of the legendary ocean explorer, has been making headlines lately for his efforts to help spearhead a cleanup of the Gulf oil [...]
June 10th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I’m not sure how to show or tell this crisis’ situation to students. It is so heartbreaking, seemingly beyond their control. Any thoughts on a way to present this in any type of working tool? Any words of hope?
http://www.Gardengreenangels.blogspot.com.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:36 am
It serves no purpose to argue about why this oil leak happened. There is no quick fix for the future of the Gulf of Mexico. Gasoline prices will go up to record highs in just a few short weeks. The US government is only worried about the next election and won’t come up with any realistic answers for this catastrophe.
The bottom line is this, we shouldn’t be so greedy for oil to be drilling ANYWHERE in ANY OCEAN for oil. I don’t care what the talking heads say, the Gulf of Mexico is doomed as a clean waterway and will be for decades to come. Millions of species of wildlife are being destroyed daily and this will go on for decades also. Further, if the oil platforms were shut down today we have no clue and neither do they if they can effectively shut down the wells in the Gulf!
ANWR is no different. What used to be millions of Caribou roaming the north slope of ANWR are now dwindled to thousands. They have supplied sustenance for the Gw’chin Indians for thousands of years but Big Oil and a greedy inept government and a sleeping nation are going ahead and move the Eskimo and the native indians off their lands just for OIL!
Drilling for oil in this region has already started and has been going on for nearly 2 years now. All we get as citizens are lies about what is really happening up there.
For the most part I feel no pain for either the Eskimo in Alaska or the Cajon of South Louisiana. Of course it is a shame the loss they will incur. But they have sold their souls to Big Oil instead of fightig back to preserve the lands and water resouces that have sustained them for many years.
I say NO OIL PRODUCTION of any kind in any Ocean Anywhere!
James P Perdue Sr
June 11th, 2010 at 8:47 am
I don’t disagree with Philipes idea about educating the students of America. But it will take 20 to 30 years for any good to come of this educational idea. No real fix now.
Education has done nothing to prevent this problem in the Gulf. People in general just don’t care as long as they can fill up their SUVS!
As a people the US citizens don’t seem to care about the Oceans only as long as they can get to the beaches that are hopefully free of oil. Get drunk, a suntan, and go home and leave their garbage on the beaches that will eventually be swept out to sea.
This is not a British Petroleum problem alone, it is the responsibility of every US citizen to guarantee that this kind of thing will never happen again!
James P Perdue Sr
June 14th, 2010 at 4:19 am
I have not learned how far the well reaches from the seabed inward. There usually is a projected production flow that is monetized and the media reportage on the 24 hour loss rate could have been an estimate that works around the production estimate. The other “integrateds” know what those fields will yield. The American Petroleum Institute has data and access to any exploration and production. So what have has the oil crowd stepped forward with for the public and nation?
And, this nebulous blob, what will the heat content of ocean surface become? What is the oil temperature at the point of escape? How deep is the well?