The hidden L.A. oil rigs

I find it funny that so many people from California don't want drilling off their coast, but I wonder if they know their city has oil fields all over the place!!



H/T Huffington Post

Thanks, Jimmy Buffet

from deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

GULF SHORES, Ala. – Today, Alabama Unified Command’s efforts to recover wildlife along the Gulf Coast were enhanced with the donation of a special boat from singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

The popular entertainer has donated a boat to help recover oil-soaked wildlife. The boat, built by Dragonfly Boatworks in Vero Beach, Fla., was designed specifically to navigate the shallow waters and marshes of the Gulf Coast to retrieve injured wildlife.

The boat will play an important role in the efforts of Alabama Unified Command to ensure that local wildlife are rescued and transported to rehabilitation centers.
The vessel was given to the Friends of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, a non-profit organization that supports Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is located in coastal Alabama and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Alabama Unified Command is excited to be working with the local community to do all we can to address the needs of wildlife affected by the oil spill,” said Pete Benjamin, a Fish and Wildlife employee with Mobile Wildlife Operations. “This new asset will improve our efforts to rescue wildlife and ensure that animals are cared for and rehabilitated.”

“We are going to ensure the boat is provided to the wildlife recovery teams, which will patrol the shallow areas around Bon Secour and Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuges along with other sensitive places,” said Ralph Gilges, President of the Friends of Bon Secour NWR.



Shallow Water Attention Terminal (S.W.A.T.) boats are built on a flat hull and operate in waters as shallow as 8-10 inches. This particular boat was designed by Mark Castlow and Jimbo Meador, co-owners of Dragonfly Boatworks, who recognized the need for a boat with the ability to operate in shallow waters and marshy areas.

“The folks from Dragonfly Boatworks are thrilled to help: I’m excited we have a relationship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and that the boat will be used for what it was intended,” said co-owner Jimbo Meador.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge Manager Jereme Phillips lauded the duo.
“Castlow and Meador recognized a need, identified a solution, and made it happen with the help of Jimmy Buffett,” said Phillips. “Friends of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, our refuge support group, closed the loop to facilitate the donation by accepting the boat on behalf of the Refuge. We are immensely grateful to Mr. Buffett for his gift and concern for our treasured wildlife.”

The Dragonfly co-owners have been working nonstop for weeks to modify a popular design for shallow-draft fishing boats, literally turning them into mobile triage wards for oiled wildlife. Designed specifically with wildlife rescue in mind, it has a canopy to protect workers and birds from the sun and a table to make it easier to examine wildlife. The boat also has a misting system to provide further cooling and is equipped with Wi-Fi and video cameras to enable remote viewing of the rescue operations.

The boat is scheduled to begin wildlife recovery operations during the week of July 19.
Greg Vergari, wildlife recovery operations coordinator, will be selecting a two-person crew trained for the safe recovery of injured wildlife. The crew will follow standard wildlife rescue protocol, which quickly transports recovered animals to nearby treatment centers.

“The S.W.A.T boat will be added to the fleet of 14 wildlife recovery boats, and it will work initially around our local national wildlife refuges,” stated Vergari. “The crew can inspect habitat conditions for oil contamination while they search for injured wildlife.”

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge is one of Alabama's best-kept secrets and protects a variety of habitats. For more information on Bon Secour, log on to: http://www.fws.gov/bonsecour/.

History of the Oil Industry in Gulf Coast

Great history of the oil industry in Louisiana from nola dot com.

Here's a graphic showing the jobs lost due to Obama's moratorium. Click on the graphic for a larger version.

Interview with Kindra Arneson

Kindra Arnesen, outspoken critic of BP from Venice, Louisiana and advocate for the fishermen of the Gulf Coast and their families, indeed for all families in trouble from the oil catastrophe in the Gulf, was interviewed live on Hard Tail News of Freedomizer Radio by regular host "Doc" on July 15th. The topics include the new cap, BP coverups and double-crosses, toxic rain, oil plumes and hurricane impacts on the oil disaster.

Here is her hour interview with Doc in five parts



Click here to hear the interview

Help for pets of Fishermen/Seafood Workers

Louisiana SPCA is ready to help fisher people and those that work in the Seafood business.

The Louisiana SPCA is offering free food, free spay/neutering,free microchipping, free vacinations and bloodwork. All you need to provide is proof that you work in the industry (license, pay stub). Go to the link above for details for your area.

Oil Spill Day 88 Numbers

July 16, 2010 from deepwaterhorizon.com

Approximately 43,800 personnel are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife and cleanup vital coastlines.

More than 6,900 vessels are currently responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.

More than 3.32 million feet of containment boom and 7 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 856,000 feet of containment boom and 2.74 million feet of sorbent boom are available.

More than 33.3 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.

Approximately 1.84 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied—1.07 million on the surface and 771,000 sub-sea. Approximately 541,000 gallons are available.

387 controlled burns have been conducted, efficiently removing a total of more than 10.98 million gallons of oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife. Because calculations on the volume of oil burned can take more than 48 hours, the reported total volume may not reflect the most recent controlled burns.

17 staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines.

Approximately 587 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled—approximately 336 miles in Louisiana, 112 miles in Mississippi, 68 miles in Alabama, and 71 miles in Florida. These numbers reflect a daily snapshot of shoreline currently experiencing impacts from oil so that planning and field operations can more quickly respond to new impacts; they do not include cumulative impacts to date, or shoreline that has already been cleared.

Approximately 83,927 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters remain closed to fishing in order to balance economic and public health concerns. More than 65 percent remains open. Details can be found at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

To date, the administration has leveraged assets and skills from numerous foreign countries and international organizations as part of this historic, all-hands-on-deck response, including Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, the European Union's Monitoring and Information Centre, and the European Maritime Safety Agency.

Tarballs on the beach

We took a trip to Waveland/Bay St. Louis today to see how the Mississippi coast was fairing.

Click on any picture for a larger version.

We spied a few victims of the oil spill:





We entered the beach area by the Silver Slipper Casino. As we walked the beach in Lakeshore/Waveland it was very clean.

Thinking we could venture behind the casino - to a place that sold bait - I drove to the back of the building but was stopped by a guy clad all in black who told me I couldn't go any further and to turn around. I complied.

As we were leaving the casino grounds, we spotted two "vessels of opportunity" leaving the command center to lay boom.





We walked out onto the beach outside the casino and it was clean and pristine. I felt great. So we decided to venture down the beach towards Bay St. Louis.


Beach Boulevard is being resurfaced and it was very slow going.(Waveland seems to be doing construction on 90% of their roads simultaneously).

We came upon a group people cleaning the beach - so that's why it appeared so clean!!



Apparently, they bus the beach cleaners to the spots to be cleaned every day. Each group is escorted by rent a cops. As we approached the group, I could see the Barney Fife guy coming towards my car. I ignored him and kept driving.

It's true what they say about these beach cleaners working 20 minutes and taking 20 minute breaks.







I drove about a mile past the beach cleaners and we got out and walked the beach. We were now on the Waveland/Bay St. Louis city limits.



Five years post Katrina, views like this represent the majority of the beach front homes.

Walking down to the shoreline, it was apparent that the beach cleaners hadn't been here since high tide.


The tarballs are the black "rocks" in this picture.


The lines made as the tide receded seem to contain minute pieces of oil by product.

The size and shape of the tar balls varied. I supposed this is due to "weathering".


This group of globs had the consistency of clay. Very ugly.


This was the largest tar ball we found.






A dead blue crab amidst petroleum. So sad.


Boom is useless on beaches due to the wind and tides.

After walking down the beach for some time we noticed storm clouds moving our way, so we headed back towards the car.



Along the sidewalk of the beach we spotted three straw booms that apparently had blown off the beach.



Walking back to the car, I snapped a few pictures that I'd like to use in my calendar next year.









We the residents of the Gulf Coast survived Katrina. We will survive this.

they choked off the well

Baby steps, but check it out here….the only thing you see is the dispersants being squirted out:

 

http://www.wwl.com/View-all-12---Spill-Cam---video-feeds/7381402

 

pray!

The Gulf and Me

Interactive Project Spotlights Lives Changed by Oil Spill ; Effort to culminate in customizable book Source: PRNewswire PRESS RELEASE ATLANTA, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Gulf Coast residents whose lives have been affected by the oil spill can now contribute their stories to an interactive project dedicated to collecting and preserving experiences of everyday people and places affected by the disaster. "The Gulf and Me: A Storygathering Journey" has two components: a community-driven website where people affected by the spill can upload their stories and images to share with others, and an upcoming journey through the Gulf region by Atlanta-based writer, personal historian and custom book designer Michael Pearson to collect additional stories. The project will culminate with publication of "The Gulf and Me," a book of stories and photos chronicling the experiences of Gulf Coast residents affected by the spill. Individuals, organizations and communities will have an opportunity to customize the book to feature their own experiences, creating a unique memoir of an unprecedented disaster. Stories posted to the website, including those generated during the storygathering expedition, will remain freely available on the Web indefinitely. A portion of any proceeds will go to Gulf recovery efforts. "The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has disrupted untold thousands of lives and threatens to change life in the Gulf of Mexico for years to come," Pearson said. "It's important to tell the stories of everyday people affected by what's happened and to preserve those stories. We need to remember years from now that this disaster will have had not just enormous environmental and policy impacts, but significant personal impacts, as well." An integral part of "The Gulf and Me" is the opportunity for the people closest to the story, Gulf Coast residents, to help direct the expedition by nominating people and places to be profiled, according to Pearson, a former journalist with The Associated Press and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The trip is being designed to be detailed in near-real time on the website, with frequent image and video updates, journal entries and an active Twitter feed. Some interviews and tours may be streamed live, with visitors having an opportunity to participate by asking their own questions. To view the project, please visit www.thegulfandme.com. To submit profile nominations, visit "The Assignment Desk" http:// www.thegulfandme.com/the-assignment-desk. SOURCE The Gulf and Me Project

 

Day 86 numbers

By the Numbers to Date:

• More than 6,800 vessels are currently responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.

• More than 3.21 million feet of containment boom and 6.6 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 875,000 feet of containment boom and 2.65 million feet of sorbent boom are available.

• More than 31.8 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.

• Approximately 1.82 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied—1.07 million on the surface and 749,000 sub-sea. Approximately 516,000 gallons are available.

• 348 controlled burns have been conducted, efficiently removing a total of more than 10.3 million gallons of oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife. Because calculations on the volume of oil burned can take more than 48 hours, the reported total volume may not reflect the most recent controlled burns.

• 17 staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines.

• Approximately 572 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled—approximately 328 miles in Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi, 67 miles in Alabama, and 69 miles in Florida. These numbers reflect a daily snapshot of shoreline currently experiencing impacts from oil so that planning and field operations can more quickly respond to new impacts; they do not include cumulative impacts to date, or shoreline that has already been cleared.

• Approximately 83,927 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters remain closed to fishing in order to balance economic and public health concerns. More than 65 percent remains open. Details can be found at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/

• To date, the administration has leveraged assets and skills from numerous foreign countries and international organizations as part of this historic, all-hands-on-deck response, including Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, the European Union's Monitoring and Information Centre, and the European Maritime Safety Agency.

Pelicans of Racoon Island

Dammit I'm tired of crying.

From AP via nola dot com:

Biologists say oil has smeared at least 300 pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast -- marking a sharp and sudden escalation in wildlife harmed by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The government counts only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or found dead, for use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies.

Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said Wednesday that they had spotted the oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island over the past several days. The spit of land lines the Gulf outside the state's coastal marshes. An estimated 10,000 birds nest on the island in Terrebonne Parish.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Lisa Williams said state and federal observers had documented only 68 oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island.

Biologist Marc Dantzker with Cornell -- considered one of the nation's premier institutions for bird research -- said about 30 to 40 of the pelicans spotted by his group were oiled "head-to-tail." Many more had visible blotches of oil.

Dead birds also were seen, although no count was available for those.

"This is a major oiling event of an incredibly important seabird colony," Dantzker said. "Many of these birds will be dead soon -- weeks and months. These blotches are deadly."

Even a small amount of oil can kill birds because it hampers their ability to regulate their body temperature.

The Raccoon Island colony was established by the state in the 1980s. Its successful expansion epitomized restoration efforts that brought brown pelicans off the endangered species list last year.

Oil from the spill 50 miles off the coast hit the island on July 10, after Hurricane Alex drove high seas into the region as it passed to the south, according to Louisiana officials. And with millions of gallons of crude still at sea it could be hit again.

"This is not like Exxon Valdez where you had tens of thousands of birds killed all at once," said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell laboratory. "It's more insidious because it is literally happening in waves and it's happening over and over again as the birds are moving around."

Dantzker said he was surprised the government's number was so low and speculated that they used a different method to count oiled birds.

"Come out and look with us," he said. "If you're on the island and using binoculars you will see those birds."

Across the Gulf, roughly 3,000 killed or oil-covered birds have been collected by wildlife agencies since BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank on April 20, killing 11 workers.

Williams, the wildlife official, declined to say how many more birds that were not collected might have oil on them. She said those figures were being compiled, but the results would not be available for some time.

As has been the case with other nesting colonies, Williams said her agency did not plan to rescue the oiled birds from Raccoon Island because that could disrupt other birds in the colony. Entering a colony can flush nesting birds and lead to adults inadvertently killing their young.

"We don't want to cause more harm than good," Williams said

From deepwater horizon website
Raccoon Island, off the coast of Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana, is being closely monitored for the impact of oil on wildlife that inhabits the land mass that is part of the Isle Dernieres Barrier Island Refuge.

Managed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), Raccoon Island provides habitat for one of the largest nesting colonies in the state. Consequently, LDWF biologists as well as biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have been monitoring the island daily and following carefully crafted protocols that consider the overall health and safety of the bird colony when recovery of oiled birds is considered. The protocols require that bird colonies are not to be disturbed unless a large percentage of the birds are oiled, or heavily oiled individuals are accessible without causing increased colony stress or oiling. The number and extent of oiled birds currently observed on Raccoon Island do not meet the requirements of the protocols.

Federal and state biologists surveying the island have confirmed hundreds of birds have visible oil ranging from light to heavy. These observations have also been made by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which has a video crew recording the impacts of the oil spill on wildlife.
It is difficult to assess the exact number of oiled birds and the situation is being monitored daily. In addition to approximately 20,000 nesting pairs of birds present, estimates of another 35,000 adults, immature birds, and chicks comprise a population of concern to state and federal biologists. Approximately 2,500 pairs are pelicans and the other birds are terns, gulls, and wading birds such as herons and egrets.

“We fully support the efforts of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and other officials in the region to monitor and assess the impacts on birds and other wildlife," said Ken Rosenberg, Director of Conservation Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “We know it is too early to assess the full impacts of the oil spill on birds. The Cornell Lab's video crew has not been involved in official survey efforts, but they have estimated the numbers of birds at their filming locations based on what they could see. In particular, we absolutely support the policies and decision-making of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding efforts to recover and rehabilitate badly oiled birds,” Rosenberg said. “They are doing a great job of ensuring that the harm to wildlife is minimized.”

“The majority of affected birds observed by the Cornell team had small amounts of oil on their feathers, and would not warrant capture and recovery efforts that could disturb and further endanger these sensitive colonies. The longer-term population impacts from these lightly oiled birds are of concern, however, and continued monitoring is critical,” concludes Rosenberg.

Of the 68 heavily oiled birds observed on July 10, 14, and 15, six were rescued safely by LDWF biologists based on protocols observed by these biologists working on the bird rescue mission. No rescues are attempted on the island where rescue activity would disturb unoiled or slightly oiled birds, and increase the possibility of putting additional birds at risk.

The rescue of oiled wildlife impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to be an important mission for the LDWF and the USFWS. State and federal field biologists patrol coastal waters and marshes daily searching for wildlife in distress, including thousands of coastal shorebirds, wading birds and migratory species.