The oil is coming

What an interesting two days.

I'm starting to feel comfortable with my job down here and getting the hang of things.  While our team is officially called the "Wildlife Rescue Team", we do much more than that.  We leave dock around 6:30 am and are assigned to a specific zone of the Grand Isle area.  For the last two days, my team has been patrolling the area between Grand Isle and Empire, LA (which is on the Mississippi River).  It is an area with a lot of open water and small rookery islands, so it is a very crucial area to protect.  Our captain will drive us out to our zone and then begin traveling to the areas where birds are often found so that we can check on them and make sure none are oiled or injured.  We try to stay as far away from the islands as possible and observe using binoculars to avoid disturbing the colonies.  But beyond that, we also check our entire zone for oil and/or dispersant plumes and we also check the booms that are placed around certain areas.  If we discover any plumes or boom which needs to be repaired or replaced, we radio it in to headquarters.  HQ will then dispatch a boom crew or skimmer boats to address the problem.  The entire system is extremely well organized, and from what I've seen, action is taken quickly after the report is made.  Here are a few pictures from the last 2 days.

Such a telling picture

One of the many bird rookeries with both soft and hard protective boom around it

A closer shot of a rookery.  The number of bird species and individuals is amazing.  It smells horrible, however.

A funnel cloud spotted very near our boat.  Not something you want to see when you are in the middle of nowhere.

Yesterday our zone was basically spotless.  Virtually all of the oil that came onshore 2 weeks ago has been cleaned up, and the main focus has been on maintaining and placing new boom around sensitive areas.  Today however, we noticed a marked increase in the amount of plumes that we saw.  A 20 square mile slick was spotted less than a mile offshore, and is predicted to hit us sometime tomorrow.  All day we saw skimmer boats mobilizing to the area to begin fighting the plume as it approaches.  Although the work will definitely reduce the impact of the oil, I can't help but thinking that a large amount of oil will still reach the marshes.  The next two days are expected to be very busy - unfortunately it looks like the wildlife recovery will be back in full swing.  I apologize that my pictures aren't great - the lens of my camera fogs up constantly.

This is a plume of oil mixed with dispersant, which was approximately 3/4 of a mile long.  

This is a skimmer boat, which is actually a shrimping boat that is now towing skimmers and boom instead of shrimp nets.  These guys respond to our reports of slicks and do their best to remove the contamination.  All are local boats piloted by local fisherman.

My work here so far has been very tiring, but very rewarding.  We are so lucky to have wonderful accommodations and a great crew of people that are both skilled and passionate about what we are doing.  Everyone is 100% dedicated to protecting the wildlife and habitat - it is very inspiring.  The beautiful scenery and beach-front house don't hurt either.  :)  As I sit here on the balcony listening to the waves of the gulf and looking at the full moon (and nursing quite a sunburn), I know without a doubt that I made the right decision in coming here.