I live 25 minutes from Mobile Bay which leads out into the Gulf. Hubby and I are in a fishing club that fishes inshore Salt water areas, including the oil rigs that dot the bay and dot the coast off Dauphin Island and Fort Morgan. Mobile has a huge shipping channel where ships from all over the world dock to either pick up cargo or drop cargo off and in most instances, both. It's very humbling to be in your bay boat and have to yield to these huge machines coming through the water towards you to be moored up river.
Pics I took a couple years ago while fishing.
The oil spill is a huge tragic event that took the lives of several men and injured others. What it's still doing is absolutely horrific. Over 200,000 gallons of oil a
DAY is being spilled into the environment. Tar balls have washed ashore on Dauphin Island and have dotted the beaches there. The National Guard was called prior to that event to help with the placing of boom along the shores to help prevent oil from washing onto land. Thousands of people participate in cleaning up stuff that has been littered along the beaches to help make cleanup of oil should it wash ashore here (or Mississippi or Florida or Louisiana or Texas) easier because all the "crap" folks leave behind is no longer there to hamper them.
They've attempted dropping a 3 story dome they made in a weeks time over the spill, but dropping one that far down (5,000) feet had never been done before and their efforts failed as ice crystals formed over the hole that oil was to be siphoned from UP to a ship waiting on the surface. They're attempting another try at that with a smaller unit called a Top Hat - not heard yet how that's gone.
Hay has been dropped off on Dauphin Island to soak up any oil that makes its way ashore and hair/fur stuffed buoys have also been placed along the sand to soak it up too. One thing that has been done by folks of a higher power is to spray a dispersant that will break up the oil. Unfortunately it also has the potential to in effect sterilize the gulf. Think of the shore areas of the gulf as a Nursery or sorts. This is springtime and alllllllllll sorts of wildlife are hatching eggs, spawning, giving birth to live creatures like dolphins, etc etc. The Gulf is a HUGE ecosystem that is in a huge pile o' the brown word right now due to this mess.
This oil spill far outweighs what happened 21 years ago with the Exxon Valdez (which btw 21 years later oil is STILL being found on beaches etc up there). They've not stopped the spill, they don't have an ETA for WHEN they'll stop the oil from gushing out. Until then, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil are being spilled into the water that MILLIONS of people rely on for their very livelihoods: Shipments up the Mississippi River we've heard are being slowed because of contamination of oil soaked ships - they all need to be sanitized before going up river - well that halts goods from being delivered to consumers like me and you, Fishing Industries - you like shrimp? Oysters? Fresh Fish? Frozen Fish? Guess what? Commercial Fishing in areas where the oil is (HUGE area) have been halted. Shrimpers have been commissioned to deploy boom to help capture oil and to help oil from being washed ashore. This affects restaurants (revenue), tourism, etc. Last I heard from someone I work with who was to go on vacation to a condo was that 80% of the hotel/condo/bungalow reservations were canceled.
You're right, there is NOTHING good about this whole situation. It's Awful, Tragic, Horrific, etc etc.
It's downright scary. This situation will not be remedied in my lifetime.....this is a HUGE problem. MANY people are working on this to remedy what is to come, regular people like me and you.....right now that's what we can do.....I hope that SOON it can be contained and we can really focus our attentions on cleaning up the mess left behind.
ETA: Unfortunately, lots of people (including folks I work with) have no idea of the impact this has on us
all......and that, is very sad.
