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Man, I drove to Destin fron Nawlins this week for a convention. I decided to ride the coast and see what the effects were since I haven't been in a few weeks. Thought it would be a good idea since they said they couldn't find any oil.



The marshes some 1 mile from the coast(Mississippi), have a layer of what looks like pudding over the grasses. Booms were overun. Helicopters everywhere, no workers in the area. I can't imagine how some of these marshes will ever recover in my lifetime. I stopped an walked up to one of the areas just past Mobile. Unreal, with a gloved hand you have to exert some force to push through the layer of crude, 6 inches thick. Below it, nothing. Everythings dying underneath. No sunlight penetrates it. Normally you see minnow, birds, bugs, tadpoles all kinds of stuff in this brackish marsh. Nothing. Death. Very sad.



Drove over the beach into Destin, which is a very populated visible area, very different from where I just stopped. As soon as you cross the bridge, huge cleanup crews. Here they are picking up tarballs, unlike orange beach, that story will blow your mind. But they have booms and boats everywhere puttin on a show here. Nothing but the occasional tarball. Until I stepped out on my balcony. Hmm I've never seen the water look like this. Beautiful blue, except from the beach out about 50 yards. Weird green algae bloom. Never seen that here. Very thick. Authorities say it's seaweed. Nope. Looks like the same green algae you'd see in a small stagnant pond. Seaweed my butt. I wonder what Corexant does to the PH of the water. Could that have caused the algae bloom?



Spending the weekend at Perdido Beach with the family. It's between Perdido Key and Orange Beach, Alabama. Water looks ok, until you get in. It's like putting your foot in a bathtub full of bubblebath and baby oil. Hard to get that off your foot. We'll be staying in the pools for the weekend. Friend has a 2 million dollar house on the bay. Just found out it was going to be condemned because of oil penetration into the ground. WTH? Also found out they've taken all of the sea turtle eggs to the east coast of Florida. Not good news for this area. Yet the beaches are open? Scary for the notsobright folks in the water.



Sorry if this read a little choppy. Here's what I'm seeing. BP is wallpapering the beaches with cleanup crews. Anywhere there is a crowd, there is a crew and boats. The areas people don't congregate, some of them don't have booms, and many are simply overun with untreated crude. Helis are spotting it but nothing was being done. Can't see anything to do but burn it. The strange algae bloom you should be able to see on the Destin Beach cameras. And in corexant beaches of Orange Beach the government says cmon in the waters fine, and why people will stay in that water after sticking one foot in and feeling how greasy that water is, makes me wonder. It is clearly petroleum rich. Now this is an area where people will get sick I imagine. Because that water isn't healthy. It's obvious. But the gubment says go swimming. Condemning houses because of oil penetration but the beach is ok, hmmmm.



If anyone can offer some insight on this algae bloom I'd appreciate it. I'm most curious about what the crude and dispersants do to the PH of the water. Not something I've heard discussed. But in theory a minor PH shift can cause algae growth. But one thing I will say is there are no dolphins, mullet, bluefish, anything that appears to go near this algae. Birds either. Only seen one type of animal in it. Not the fish, fish are fairly stupid right? Not the birds with brains smaller than a peanut. Not the 2nd smartest animal in the world, the dolphins have split. Only animal in that algae are the talkingmonkeys. Yup the human visitors to the "redneck riviera". Weird, same situation in Perdido. No algae, but nothing but the humans appear to be in the greasy water. Seen fish on the other side of the bay where the water feels cleaner, even saw dolphins. Feels like they've been corralled in this area. I guess they don't know the municipalities are condemning the properties that they are cswimming in front of.



Again I apologize for thw writing. But the context was worth putting up with it. I hope. But man oh man. BP is putting on a show. It's kind of like when Iron Man opened. All of the big cities it opened right away. The small town theaters couldn't afford it opening week, so they waited a week beforing buying it. Hmmm studios don't show movies where nobody will watch em, and BP won't show where nobody will see them either.