Oil Washing Up on Gulf Beaches

Oily residues, thick tar mats and tar balls have been documented in still and video images at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, about seventy miles east of New Orleans. Resident Charles Taylor took cameras to the local beach right after Tropical Storm Lee ended. He documented the material in the first week of September. In the video below, you can see what appears to be significant amounts of oil on the beach.

A land manager said, “We have never been out of response mode. We’ve been out there without a pause, only slowed down a bit during nesting season this spring. We have never stopped seeing oil and they have never cleaned it up.” (Source: NOLA.com)

She made her remarks due to the discovery of tar mats at Fourchon Beach, near New Orleans after the same tropical storm. Even beaches in Alabama and Florida reported extra oily material. An Alabama marine resources official said, “Throughout the city it is pretty sporadic and they are typically very small but in a couple of areas we’re definitely seeing increased amounts of tar, larger tar balls to the size of cookies.” (Source: wkrg.com)

A number of universities are collaborating to investigate impacts of the huge oil spill, and how the Gulf has fared since then. Another researcher, this one from Virginia, will study the impact of oil on the bottom-dwelling creatures. He said, “A big concern is that bottom-dwelling organisms may be ingesting the oil in the sediments and passing it up the food chain to shrimp and fishes. Hopefully we’ll be able to see if the organisms are avoiding the oiled sediment layers.” (Source: Miamiherald.com)

Image Credit: Charles Taylor

Related Links

250,000 Oil Spills in Gulf Waters

Oil Drilling Resumes in Gulf

Read more: Environment, Nature, News & Issues, Videos, Videos

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Serena A.

10:42AM PDT on Sep 20, 2011

September 20
send a green star

Past Member .

7:49PM PDT on Sep 16, 2011

Thanks

September 16
send a green star

Laurie H.

7:32PM PDT on Sep 16, 2011

This to me is not a surprise sadly-and BP still stands like a monster looking for it's next pray!!!!!~ DOWN WITH OIL DRILLING-NO MORE RUINING OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET!~ LET'S GO GREEN!~

James H.

10:51PM PDT on Sep 15, 2011

thanks for the article!

Help me replant 150+ acres of forest by signing my petitionhttp://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-replant-forests-so-our-children-will-have-a-future/

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/a-young-girl-amidst-wild-animals.html#ixzz1Y5koym5L

September 15
send a green star

8:55PM PDT on Sep 15, 2011

Well - Well - Well
No one should be surprised about this...
That oil will be there long after we are all gone...
This poor planet can't take much more...

It is so disturbing to me how people are continuely destroying Our Beautiful Mother Earth, and act like - "Life Just Goes On."

Keep it up people, and in the not so distant future our descentants and all life on Earth will cease to exist.

THE END

Monica D.

7:35PM PDT on Sep 15, 2011

Concerning. We should all do what we can to reduce our fossil fuel use.

Dana A.

9:14AM PDT on Sep 15, 2011

This is no surprise....so much for all the commercials touting clean beaches. BP should be monitoring these beaches for years and cleaning up their mess.

Marie W.

12:09AM PDT on Sep 15, 2011

Thanks BP and pray the XL pipeline gets shot down.

Alicia N.

9:01PM PDT on Sep 14, 2011

noted . . . . . . . . . . . . .