Due to my father’s surprise business mission to do work on the Gulf, my family and I are staying in a penthouse condo (on the 18th floor!) in Gulf Shores. What a blessing – it’s beautiful here! Early this morning my mother, seven of my siblings (Rachel was off to a friend’s house) and I took a stroll on the beach. It was around 7:00 in the morning, and the weather was very pleasant. The beach has been fairly quiet since we’ve been here (not many people or birds around).
After awhile, Mom pointed out some suspicious looking mocha-colored foam coming in towards the shore that she thought might have come from the oil spill. My siblings and I began scouring the shore for more evidence. There was a great number of dead shrimp and mollusks, and the water and foam collecting in shells had an iridescent sheen. Several dead fish of various sizes were present. A few drenched bird feathers were around too. Abigail (age 13) provided photographic documentation. We made some videos too, which will be posted as soon as possible.
This was the first time that Beth (age 5) and Ben (age 3) had ever been to the beach. While exploring, Ben got too close to the tide and slipped in. He quickly jumped up, spluttering and crying that his basketball jersey was now dirty. We took his little jersey off so he get dry more quickly, and I decided to use it for carrying specimens.
I used shells to scoop up the oily foam and several clear plastic-looking things that were shaped like oyster shells. I got a few shrimp bodies as well. These remains were all scattered evenly across the yellowish tide line as far as we could walk. We strongly suspected that we had encountered residue from the oil spill, but reportedly it had not yet hit the shores.
Lo and behold, when we got back to the condo the news on television reported that the oil spill had finally reached Gulf Shores.
Check back for updates! My little siblings have been begging me to take them to the indoor swimming pool. I’ll shall return…
UPDATE 05/20/10 – Dad’s business trip required him to collect oil samples for microbial bioremediation experiments to help with cleaning up the oil spill. He took a boat 42 miles out at sea and found most of the oil to be solidifying into tar-like globs that floated just beneath the surface of the ocean. Here is a photograph (by Abigail) of some of the samples (they smell awful!):
While on the beach, Joseph (15 year old brother) brought me a petrified resin/bark looking object that looked just like one of the tar globs, only it was hard and without odor. I’m not completely sure if there is any connection, but I do know that most of the oil hardens as it rolls towards the shore in the cold sea water.
~Amanda~
Amanda, we are so blessed to get you onsite reporting. Make sure you get a video taken of you reporting on the beach. It is so “You” – REAL life documentary work.
Love,
Lindy
Great pictures, and again, the personality you inject makes me keeping coming back to check on your blog in general.
I’m feeling pretty pessimistic about the oil spill. An “Exxon Valdez every 4 days” is what I’d heard a few weeks ago, although whether that was before / after the news that the spill was 10 times worse than they thought – I don’t know. The whole thing has me feeling like the disaster is going to be in the news cycle for the next 20 years…
unfortunately we don’t have much control at all – zilch- at what the blah-blah media talks about. They control so much of what we think… they can make seem big or little depending on the coverage. The same day the oil began to fill Middle TN began to fill with flood waters. I was in AL visiting Amanda’s family at the time. I would call home to my husband and sons and hear the horrible stories but found NOTHING on news for 3 day after the town was floating…and after 29 people (being humans not fish or birds, or shrimp) had died. I had friends that after the water receded found two dead bodies on their property! Now this was News-worthy but went un-reported…why?
It served no purpose. It fit no agenda. It forwarded no political cause. It has nothing to do with the power people in our country -the ones who are governing us – and it couldn’t be turned into ‘racial group’ ‘sexual orientation group’ ‘so-so right group’ being discriminated against… it couldn’t generate sensation, out cry, action, pity, money, serve the media…the powerful…the rich.
No, just some simple average Americans (over 1/2 million) were at a stand still in water for days, struggling to help one another but all the same each one caring more for others than themselves and tirelessly working to ensure everyone was safe. Neighbor taking care of neighbor, church pouring out to neighbors in groups of 200 or more. Not being organized by government… no, functioning as solid, hard working, back bone of the country Americans.
This was not news-worthy, but stopping oil drilling is…so this is what we will hear about until the next item on the political agenda rises up for our attention.
The only shining lining to this story is…. individual storytellers produced some of the most beautiful coverage in the days that unfolded through personal video talent… truly a new day in journalism and reporting has arrived.