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Tar in Gulf Shores

Volunteer Field Observer Program -Volunteers Still Needed

The Volunteer Field Observer Program (VFOB) is recruiting additional volunteers to monitor shorelines for oil and affected wildlife over the next several months. Based on ACF's existing Shoreline Assessment Program, ACF partnered with Mobile Baykeeper and the State of Alabama to implement the program, which uses trained volunteers to monitor shorelines for oil impacts.

Upon finding evidence of oil, VFOB's report their findings to Incident Command, then document their findings with GPS coordinates and photographs.

Help is still needed! We have a lot of coastline that is still being impacted by oil-- your eyes and ears are critical to finding the oil as soon as possible so that the clean-up crews can respond.

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Shrimp with blackened gills from Venice marina, Oct. 18, 2010




Photos by PJ Hahn/Plaquemines Parish in Barataria Bay, October, 2010.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010: Once the well stopped spewing crude, it didn't take long for the media to pull out. Without dramatic visuals of a volcano of crude gushing from the bottom of the sea, there were other stories to pursue. But even though most media left, the oil never did. It still washes in with the tide as tar balls and sheen, visible when boat engines kick up the mud in the shallow waters of the marsh.

Despite the protests of many fishermen concerned about oil on the bottom, the fishing grounds are nearly all open. But Gulf seafood markets have crashed. America refuses to buy it and some fishermen can't pay for the gas for their boats with the price they're getting for shrimp at the docks.

"It's hardly worth it to go out," said Marvin Smith, who parked his boat in the Venice commercial docks last week to unload a night's catch of white and brown shrimp. "They pay less than two dollars a pound, but I got to go out and get them while I can." Smith looked wearily out at the harbor. He would head out again that night, but the market price was not about to change.

"A lot of people here are hurting because fishing is the only life they know," says Mike Brewer, an oil clean-up consultant who ran for the local Parish council this fall. "They are trying to get back on their feet but no one knows what the future holds. It's going to be a painful winter for a lot of folks here."

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Six-Month Anniversary of the BP Oil Disaster

October 20, 2010: Volunteers continue to find oil - small, medium or large bits are still being found out there. There are days when you can smell it on the beach or even in downtown Mobile (some 30 miles north of the Gulf) and the seafood industry has yet to actually rebound. We continue to hear stories about people going to the beach or, for those less risk averse, swimming in the Gulf still seeing and feeling oil in the sand or water. So to those of you who ask if things have settled down now that the oil is gone, please forgive me when my response is so passionate.

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6 months after Gulf oil spill, much remains unknown
Published: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 6:36 AM

Six months after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion, the environment and economy of the entire northern Gulf of Mexico region remain in a state of uncertainty, with overturned livelihoods, out-of-work fishermen, reluctant tourists, widespread emotional anguish and untold damage to the sea and its shores.

"I can honestly say, I guess, I'm very pessimistic about it," said Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association, whose oyster beds are all dead or dying. "We don't know where we're at. We don't even have a complete assessment of the damage or how long it's going to take to correct it. This is our life, though. We have nowhere else to go."

"This will be with us for decades for sure," he said. The country might be turning its attention away prematurely, considering the very real damage that has been done.


In this Oct. 14, 2010 picture, a streak of oiled marsh grass winds through Bay Jimmy near the Louisiana coast.

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BP abandons oils spill cleanup efforts, shuts down hotline
September 23rd, 2010 7:52 pm ET.

BP has been running television commercials that assure Gulf Coast and Tampa, Florida residents that BP, who is responsible for the worst oil spill in American history, will not abandon their efforts before the job is done. But according to the announcement on their cleanup company's website, that is exactly what BP is doing.“Plant Performance Services has been proud to support the Gulf Coast cleanup and recovery efforts in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident. Since May 2010, P2S has provided beach cleanup services, warehousing and logistics management, and wildlife.

There is still oil covering Louisiana wetlands. Thousands of birds and fish have lost their nesting grounds, the effects on the ecosystem of almost 2 million gallons of Corexit dispersant and 5 million barrels of spilled oil are still unknown, and there are still vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico that is unsafe for fishing. But as far as BP is concerned, they are done with their clean up of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

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Scientists make disturbing discovery in exams of dead Gulf oil spill dolphins, Kemps ridley turtles
July 14th, 2010 11:39 pm ET. (Yeah, it was in July...zat make it any less real?)

Scientists at the University of Florida in Gainesville have been performing tests on dead dolphins and Kemp’s Ridley turtles that have been collected and tagged as victims of the BP Gulf oil spill. Their findings are raising disturbing questions.

The New York Times reports, “Studies show that dispersants, which break down oil into tiny droplets and can also break down cell membranes, make oil more toxic for some animals. And the solvents they contain can break down red blood cells, causing hemorrhaging. A fresh dolphin carcass found in the Gulf was bleeding from the mouth and blowhole, according to Lori Deangelis, a dolphin tour operator in Perdido Bay. “

Dr. Brian Stacy, a veterinary pathologist, found evidence to suggest that some of the dead animals recovered from the oil spill are also exhibiting strange behavior in the moments before their death. An examination on a Kemps Ridley turtle revealed that the last thing the animal ate was a shrimp.

“You don’t see shrimp consumed as part of the normal diet” of Kemp’s ridleys, Dr. Stacy said.

The turtle’s last uncharacteristic meal may be a clue to something much bigger; the affects of the oil spill on the brain.

“Oil inhaled or ingested, can cause brain lesions, pneumonia, kidney damage, stress and death. Scientists working on the BP spill have seen oil-mired animals that are suffering from extreme exhaustion and hyperthermia.”

Reports of dolphins dying painful, bloody deaths as a result of the Gulf oil spill can be particularly disturbing to residents of Tampa Bay. The playful, charming mammals are as much a part of Central Florida’s marine landscape as the gulls and pelicans seen from beach blankets. Their loss from Tampa waters would be an insufferable tragedy.

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