Three Misses and Next, What?

Danielle was a "fish storm". Fiona looks to be one too. Earl, well that could get dicey for some on the mainland and has already for some islanders. But it missed the Gulf.

Meet "Invest 98". That's weathergeek-speak for the next thing to watch in the tropics. This one looks like it could head into the Gulf, but it's still way to early to tell for sure. The National Weather Service currently only gives this a 20% chance of developing into a tropical storm, but that could change by the time you read this.

The Gulf doesn't need this for a host of reasons. Well, nobody does really. However, a tropical storm or hurricane in the Gulf will raise a bunch of new questions about all that missing oil. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, both in the real world and in the press. Hopefully there won't be too much to talk about.

UPDATE: This is now tropical depression Gaston. It's still too early to know what it's going to be or where it's going to go, but if I was in Belize, I'd be nervous. This will bear watching to see if it turns north or barrels into the Yucatan.

Earl will play out its dance up the North American east coast by early Saturday.

FINAL UPDATE: Overnight, TD Gaston dissipated to the point where it's no longer being tracked by the National Weather Service. They are, however, tracking two more tropical waves moving west from the African coast.

Heroes, Five Years After

Photo: NOAA

Five years ago, hurricane Katrina slammed the Mississippi shores and this week its residents are celebrating their recovery and resurgence. It's plain to see that they have come a long way but there is still much to do. That ongoing recovery has and is being done by real heroes.

They are heroes because they refuse to give up or give in. Where are these heroes? Walk down any street and they will be all around you. Sit down in any restaurant or go into any shop, they will be there. The work they did and continue to do is being done quietly, outside of the news spotlight but well within view of their friends and neighbors. Coastal Mississippi communities came together to recover and continue in their causes. Groups like the Moss Point Visionary Circle, The Lord is My Hope, Hope CDA and others were born from Katrina's devastation but they all continue to serve.

The celebration of the Mississippi recovery was called "Phenomenal People" and based upon my experiences here, they most certainly are. These are my heroes.

The Upper Pascagoula River

This really has nothing to do with the BP oil spill except that it's where some of the people effected live and play. Like the bayou tour video posted a couple of weeks ago, this is a guided tour. The difference is that the guide is my new friend, Mark Wood and the narration was a bit less formal.

When Mark offered to take me on a tour, I said yes because he said that it as different than the lower river and it was. Plus, I wanted to see more of what this area has to offer.

This video looks a little different than the last river tour for two reasons. First, I used my Canon XH-A1. I'd used my HV30 for the previous video because of space. Second, this was a lot earlier in the morning so the light was different and it looked different because of the shadows.

This was a lark. Enjoy it.

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Top Kill: The Art of the Spill

I should have posted this sooner, but I learned of Leslie and Don Wilson when I stopped for lunch at a coffee shop in Bay St. Louis last week. On the counter there was a small display holding a row of DVDs entitled "Mississippi Son". I lifted one from the display and read the case which told me this was all about Katrina and it was produced by someone who calls the Mississippi Gulf Coast home. I put down my fin and took it home to watch that night.

I was blown away by it on many levels, but I was disappointed when I realized that I would never be able to tell the story of the BP oil spill the way Leslie and Don captured Katrina. When, I found the Americana Media, Inc. web site, I saw that they were producing a documentary on the BP oil spill entitled "Top Kill: The Art of the Spill". If they brought the same talent and dedication to that as they did to "Mississippi Son", it would be something special. After exchanging an handful of emails, it was resolved that I would give them all my footage for their use in that project once I finish up my work down here. It just makes sense. They have a talent for and experience with making movies and telling stories. I'm just a pikey with a camera. Who's going to tell the story better?

They'll be in production for a couple of years, which is logical as it will take at least that long for the aftermath of the spill to play out. I don't know how much information on their progress they will publish on their web site, but follow them. Go see the movie when it's released to theaters and then for home video. If "Mississippi Son" is representative of their work, it will definitely be worth seeing.

Large Fish Kill in St. Bernard Parish

File image

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports of a large fish kill in the Gulf but suggests that it is probably not "directly" related to the BP oil spill. This may or may not be true but whether it is directly or indirectly related to the spill is really irrelevant. In the complex ecological environment of the Gulf nothing exists in isolation. An event as large as the BP oil spill will have secondary, tertiary and ongoing effects in the region. Can conclusions be drawn on this fish kill without factoring in those effects?

When reading this story, I thought back to the interview with Dr. Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center. In it, he talks about the seasonal dead zone in the Gulf caused by oxygen depletion. If I heard what he said correctly, we do not yet know if the oil spill or the dispersants are making the dead zone bigger or smaller. If he's right, it seems that there is no way to know right now what caused this fish kill. It seems that the answer, "we don't know" is unacceptable in a world of "instant news". May I suggest that it should be acceptable if all the data isn't in and that reasoned, scientific conclusions haven't been formulated yet.

As an unrelated aside, I stated when I started this blog that it was going to be apolitical and I intended to be a dispassionate conduit of information. After spending six weeks on the Gulf and talking people touched by the spill and people working at the community level who are trying to help them, I'm angry. I am angry that people aren't getting the fair restitution payments promised by BP and the federal government. I'm angry that the facts of the situation are being spun by a host of organizations for favorable press and political optics. I'm angry because the people who've lived through the aftermath of Katrina are seeing the same scenarios developing.

The facts are critical to telling this story accurately, but at the top level they seem to be as scarce as shark feathers. But it can be found in the gulf-side harbors and towns in the stories of those who live and work there. I've put a few of those stories into my videos and I've had dozens more off-camera conversations, some of which I've covered in previous posts. Through all of this I've come to two conclusions. First, these are good, tough, hard working people who care passionately about their home. Second, there are a host of people and organizations trying to game the system and the situation to their own advantage, financially, politically and ways I don't yet understand. In the end, unless something changes, the Gulf residents and potentially the wildlife will suffer for a long time to come.

That's why I'm angry.

A New Claims Process Begins Tomorrow

Most everyone in the Gulf know that starting August 23, BP will stop accepting claims from businesses and individuals suffering in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. That job now falls to the federal government group headed by Kenneth Feinberg. If you don't know Brockton, Massachusetts' favorite son, Feinberg was in charge of paying claims from the September 11th terror attacks. Consensus is that he did a good and fair job on that, so he was a natural choice for this new roll. However, all is not beer and skittles with the new BP claim process. This AP story from the WLOX TV web site describes the latest.

Clearly this will take time to play out to completion, and many things can change. But if past is prologue, one might look at the five years since Katrina to see how many people were not given a fair shake by insurance companies, FEMA and others entities.

I do not have first hand information on any claims made against BP except one. The one from Kenny DiNero, owner of a bait/tackle shop in Ocean Springs. He also runs a couple of boats to catch shrimp. He was my first interview back in July who had filed a claim with BP for lost business with his boats in early July.

I stopped down to his place this past Friday. After buying me a beer, he extracted from an envelope a small stack of papers, one of which contained the heading "Forensic Accounting". The net result was that BP was going to pay Kenny a little more than $4,200 for his losses in April, May, June and part of July. I did not study the documents in detail, nor would it have done much good if I had. I'm lousy with numbers. However, does it seem that about $1,200 per month is the right amount of compensation for bringing his business to a halt?

I will add that I've talked with community leaders, including two at the Tears to Cheers Music Festival on the Beach yesterday in Biloxi who said that large numbers of people are getting only fractions of what would be fair restitution for their hardship. I am hoping to get an interview with one of those leaders this week.

If a florist in Florida or a restauranteur in Idaho get paid off but local Gulf people and business get shortchanged then there is much wrong with the situation down here. 

Who's Covering The Spill?

It should come as no surprise that news coverage of the spill has largely dried up at the national level. Without oiled wildlife or big tar balls on the beach, there are no compelling images for the press to show so they've gone where the images and storylines are more dramatic. That leaves the local media to cover stories in their neighborhoods and the Associated Press (AP).

The AP is a wire service. Their job is to write stories and feed them to all manner of outlets around the world. They provide a valuable service for smaller news outlets with limited staff, furnishing regional, state-wide and national stories to fill out broadcast newscasts and a newspaper's blank column inches. Working weekends in small market radio stations I would go to the clanking black machine in the news room to pull copy for hourly newscasts. It was called, "Rip and read". That concept appears alive and well today as newspapers, blogs and other media rely on the AP, Reuters and other smaller news services pump out the news each day.

How pervasive is the use of AP stories? Google "New guidelines could rule out many oil claims"
or click this link and see how many times the AP story with this title shows up. The first three pages of Google results I saw showed the story on web sites from ABC, CBS, Newsmax, Breitbart, Yahoo, SFGate, USA Today and many of the other usual suspects. It also appears on web sites of local stations from coastal Mississippi's WLOX-TV to stations in Washington, DC, Las Vegas, Boise and Santa Barbara.

So what's the problem? The word is getting out across the country to media outlets large and small. No, that's not the problem. The fact that they are all re-transmitting stories from a single source is. There is no equivalent, competitive news source that might have access to different facts and views from different sources. Think of it like only being able to get your news from MSNBC, Fox News or CNN. No matter how fair or balanced they claim to be, you're only going to hear from their sources through their reporters. Not a good environment for differing perspectives to get out. Not differing opinions, but different perspectives.

I don't know what the solution to this problem might be. News gathering, especially investigative reporting is a costly business. Even more so when the subject is so technically complex as the BP oil spill. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) recently laid off staff from their news organization, big city newspapers are bankrupt and Newsweek magazine was recently sold for just a dollar. When there's no reasonable revenue stream in these efforts, it's impossible to justify the spend.

Please do not satisfy yourself by saying there are leagues of "citizen journalists" or bloggers (Iike me) who will step in to fill the gap. They cannot. Not in the way an honest journalist can. They don't adhere to the same standards of fact-checking and source corroboration that legitimate reporters are trained to do. Also, many of these bloggers exist to promote some political agenda. Left, right. Government or business. They often report based upon their talking points which isn't reporting at all. It's editorializing. Not much help if you are looking for the truth.

What's left is getting the story for yourself. Hard to do if you're in Presque Isle, Maine or Tierra del Fuego. But those closer to the Gulf can talk and listen. Go to public meetings on the spill or government town hall meetings. Have a beer at a local pub or tavern and sit at the bar. Talk to those on your left and right and find out what they know, or have only just heard. Go to the marinas and talk with the fishermen. Go to the restaurants and talk to the owners. Listen to whoever will talk with you. Sure, you will get a lot of opinions and second-hand information but some facts will surface as well. Then it's up to you to form your own opinions. Share it all with people you know and listen to what they have to say. After all that, if you don't like what's happening, go out and do something about it.

Like legendary San Francisco radio commentator Wes "Scoop" Nisker says, "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."

We're Waitin' On Ya'

I have been down in southern Mississippi for about six weeks now and I've shot a lot of footage of pretty things but I probably haven't even scratched the surface of what's around. This is my love letter, of sorts, to everything that's here. Sit back and watch for about ten minutes and when it's done, get your butt down here.

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This one you'll want to go to ExposureRoom and watch it in HD.

Where's the Oil... Really

Widely circulated reports in the media that nearly three quarters of the spilled oil in the Gulf has been collected are now being challenged by researchers from the University of Georgia. A new story, released on Monday, August 17th in the Wall Street Journal claims the reverse is true, that three quarters of the oil is still in the Gulf. Now it's important to know two things about these conflicting estimates. First, the UGA study has not been peer reviewed yet so it should be considered "preliminary". Second, the federal researchers seem to be walking back their estimates somewhat, saying that their findings will be "refined" as more data becomes available.

With these two estimates of the remaining oil being so vastly different, it would be logical to conclude that even the experts don't know what they don't know yet. Without a way to effectively survey every cubic foot of water in the Gulf and every hectare of the Gulf floor, it is impossible to get an accurate accounting of how much is still out there and where it might be hiding. Without some amazingly advanced surveying technology, the experts will have to rely upon the extrapolation of known data points to estimate a number. That's a fine methodology when counting the stars in the universe because science understands much of the behavior of the celestial bodies in the vast void of space. However, no one seems to understand the behavior of the spilled oil any theories come with significant question marks attached.

As more data is gathered things should become clearer. Meanwhile, 450 pounds of newly arrived tar was collected off the beach in Waveland, Mississippi yesterday.

White Shrimp Season Opens
Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Monday that extensive testing of the shrimp and other seafood would be ongoing to make sure that current and future catches will be safe to eat. According to an AP story published here, here, here and elsewhere, they asked if tests for the dispersants were being done. The response was no because they have yet to develop a good test for it. That might be the biggest thing preventing a run on shrimp po-boys and plants another large question mark on the dispersants' impacts. Again, more data is required and, again, that will take more time. Meanwhile, the fishermen, seafood distributors, restaurateurs and consuming public will have to wait.

UPDATE: A report from Mother Jones covers a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association published August 16, 2010 that describes long term concerns over contaminated fish in the Gulf.  The news is not good.

Weekend News Roundup - Updated 8/16

As expected, now that the oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf, the news organizations are pointing their cameras and pens elsewhere. President Obama brought his family for a fleeting frolic off the Florida coast, but the attention to the problem will not last.

It doesn't take a lot of digging to find stories in the press and they tend to fall into a few categories.

1. The final capping of the well
2. The drilling moratorium
3. Suing BP
4. Some fishing bans lifted

Capping the Well
Sealing the well is a fairly straightforward deal, assuming everything goes right and should be completed this coming week, but there is a wild card in the mix. That tropical depression that fell apart late last week after is crossed the Florida peninsula is making moves like it wants to strengthen. At this writing, it's reversed course back over the Gulf and could be fortified by the warm water there. It's too early to tell what will happen, but if it does get some of its mojo back, they could shut down activity at the spill sight again. Everyone will have to wait and see over the next few days.

The Drilling Moratorium
Several sources within the Obama administration are now wondering if the current six-month drilling ban is the right move. According to an Associated Press story covered on both Fox News and MSNBC, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar does not want to permit deep water drilling until companies demonstrate that they can respond much more effectively to spills at depth than BP did. Major questions exist around what that might mean, so for now it would seem that the ban will remain through November barring legal challenges to it. It's noteworthy that William K. Reilly, a former EPA administrator who co-chairs Obama's commission on the spill is wondering to the press why those rigs that have passed inspections cannot go back to work. It seems that few understand why six months is the "right" number of months to wait before drilling resumes.

Suing BP
It's clear that the big winners in this oil spill are going to be the lawyers. While some argue both sides of the drilling moratorium and others litigate claims against BP (for big chunks of any awards they win), the single biggest suit was lodged by the state of Alabama against BP and other companies associated with the failed rig because they did not act responsibly.

If history serves as a guide, it's likely that there will be an ever growing queue of legal action that will largely go unnoticed in the press. An MSNBC story says that it could be five years before any trials begin and it could be as long as 2028 before they are all resolved. The report states that there are at least 300 suits pending now and before it is all done the awards could outstrip the $20 billion set aside by BP. I have not seen any reports limiting the percentage of awards that lawyers can take. So assuming the lawyers take their customary 40% contingency fee, that means that they could extract up to $8 billion out of the BP fund leaving $12 billion for those actually harmed by the spill.

The MSNBC story states:

"The plaintiffs in the myriad of civl lawsuits make up the entire mosaic of the Gulf Coast: shrimpers and oystermen, charter boat captains, beach resort and condo owners, restaurants and bars, seafood suppliers, bait and tackle shops, even tourist attractions like Key West's Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

Most of the parties claim severe economic losses from the oil spill, ranging from the fish they can no longer catch to tourists who never arrived to rent rooms."

What has not surfaced in the press is that the entity accepting claim applications (and I'm not clear on who that is exactly) has been, on occasion, reticent to take any for anyone other than the fishermen. The Kenny DiNero story confirms that they did not want to do anything about the damage to his bait and tackle shop or his fuel business. I have heard similar, unconfirmed, anecdotes from others. Those Gulf residents who went through the claims process after Katrina have seen this before, and few are surprised about what is going on now.

Fishing Bans Eased
Reports surfaced last week, like this one from CNN, that fishing bans are ending across the Gulf. Anyone who thinks that lifting the bans will solve the fishing communities' problems lives in a world where the sky is a color other than blue. Is anyone willing to eat any Gulf fish when the scientific community cannot quantify what the oil and dispersants have done to the aquaculture? Those working the boats know the answer and they cannot justify running their boats when they know the markets for their fish have disappeared. Sure, the government claims to have tested Gulf fish and that no oil was present but there is no way to know if their tested samples are representative of the all the fish in the Gulf. Then there's the dispersants. If there are any reports of fish being tested for them, I have not seen them. As Dr. Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula Audubon Center indicated, it will take some time before the full effects of this spill are known. Until then, those who fish for their livelihoods will continue to suffer. They are not the only ones.

CNN, as part of their larger BP spill coverage, posted a story to their Web site on August 9th that beats the same drum that's been thumped on for months. Those "in charge" keep saying progress is being made and that things are slowly returning to normal. The story reported that White House environmental adviser Carol Browner said, "she said scientists are examining marine life in the Gulf, 'and right now nobody is seeing anything of concern'."

It's what cannot be seen that keeps Gulf residents worried.

UPDATE: The Associated Press published a story, carried by Fox News and MSNBC on the increased testing regimen being used on fish in the Gulf. It doesn't answer all the questions people have down here, but it does make some progress.

Crab Processor Takes Hit

Although this video was recorded in late June, I've added it here because it has many of the same sentiments that Kenny DiNero expressed in his interview. Here's the description of the clip from the producer.

Dennis Landry, owner of a prosperous (until this massive toxic dump by British Petroleum) wholesale crab processing operation in Larose, La., is potentially facing financial ruin because of the British Petroleum oil dump into the Gulf of Mexico. Like all the residents of South Louisiana, Dennis is NOT AGAINST OIL AND GAS, he and his neighbors just want it done right, with proper and effective safeguards and regulation, so that the fertile fisheries upon which about half the population depends for their livelihoods and family sustenance, can continue to survive and provide their generous bounty to the hard working people of South Louisiana.

Maybe it's just me, but I sense a similar frustration in this video as I did with Kenny and others that I've talked with off camera. There is still a real danger that operations like Dennis' and Kenny's will go out of business until the world believes that the seafood in the Gulf is safe to eat, and no one knows how long that is going to take.

The Debate on Dispersants

Arguably, the question asked most often by Gulf residents on the BP oil spill is, “what about the dispersant?” Is it still out there in the water? What did it do to the oil? Is it in the fish? If so, what will it do to them? What will happen if I eat those fish? Is anyone going to buy our fish? Those are  just a few of the ones I’ve heard. There are more.

It was also much on the mind of those attending the Steps Coalition quarterly meeting when the Environmental Protection Agency made a presentation and took questions. I was there to record the exchanges and while it got a little “motivated” for a bit, what’s interesting about the dozen or so minutes of video here is that very little new information on Corexit 9500 was provided.

As covered in the interview with Dr. Mark LaSalle, Corexit contains a proprietary component that the company will not publically divulge. That’s their right under the laws but it is the big wild card in trying to figure out what it is doing in the Gulf. It’s like trying to figure out what water is without knowing anything about hydrogen. Well, that’s over simplifying but you get the idea. It leaves the people, wildlife and environment in the Gulf more than a bit in the lurch. I’m not going to posit what might be right or wrong with this because that’s not up to me. It’s up to those directly involved; BP, the government's Unified Command, Corexit’s manufacturer and the people who live and work here. It’s liable to be settled by lawyers.

Back at the Steps Coalition meeting, this segment was only about one eighth of the overall discussion. All of it was important to those who had their say. Other topics covered were a more nuanced or yielded fewer facts on the spill’s current and near term status. To be honest, some of it might have gone over my head because I’m not local and as such not dialed in to other local issues. This section was selected for this piece because it is the most topical, nearest the lead on TV news and probably of the most interest to the audience beyond this region.

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I was hoping to come away from this meeting with more answers and I doubt I was alone with that desire. There appear to be no real answers to the long term questions yet. Just isolated date points. The cynic in me wants to paraphrase Mark Twain on the subject of facts, or in this case, data.

“There are three kinds… lies, damn lies and statistics.”

I guess I've been down here long enough that the frustration is starting to rub off on me.

Tuesday's Open Thread

While the media wraps up its coverage of the "Crisis in the Gulf", real work continues to find the oil that apparently has gone missing. Beach and marsh cleaning continues, and repercussions still ripple through the region.

Here's your chance to chime in with your thoughts and comments. Anything you'd like. If you have something you want me to cover, let me know. Please remember this blog is family friendly so don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to read.

The Bayou: Nature's Nursery

As I spend more time in the Gulf and talk to more people who know this region I realize that it is an amazingly diverse and wondrous place. Unlike the shores of New England where I grew up that are famous for craggy bluffs and rocky shorelines, the Gulf coast is an alluvial creation of so many different rivers that drain from America's heartland. Inshore, these rivers create habitats comprised of marshes and swamps known as bayous. Bayous are homes for an amazingly diverse spectrum of wildlife. They are the breeding ground for countless creatures, provide protection from the elements and even other predators and they are an evolving and fragile ecosystem upon which the regions animal kingdom and humans so fully depend.

That is why so much work has gone into protecting these wetlands from the incursion of oil from the BP spill. In some areas this work has been effective, but in others closer to the source of the oil, things have not gone as well. Bayous and salt marshes on the Louisiana mainland and coastal islands have been the most at risk, and they remain exposed to the oil not recovered from the Gulf.

This piece is a tour of the bayous on the Pascagoula river. Captain Benny McCoy of McCoy River Tours takes us though the many swamps and marshes, and teaches us about the many cycles of life that go on there. If one wants to see nature's creatures, this is an excellent way to do that.

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There was so much more that wasn't captured on camera that filled Benny's two hour tour. It was so very entertaining, fun and enlightening. He taught us about gators and egrets, flowers and marshmallows and the history of this place that most that don't live here probably never knew. For instance, did you know that parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were once a country independent from the United States? Neither did I.

Special thanks to Captain Benny McCoy for his hospitality and expert commentary. I learned a lot of things I'd never known and saw a lot of things I never imagines. Also thanks to Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center for setting me up with this wonderful opportunity.

Mark LaSalle, Ph.D.

Although the spill has stopped, questions remain. How are the fish and the shrimp? What about the birds? Where did the oil that BP and the government can’t account for go? Did the dispersants hurt or help? I have at least a dozen more. As you’ve thought about the spill, you’ve probably come up with your own. Since we can’t ask the fish, birds or the oil for answers we ask those with the expertise to glean them. The scientists.

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I turned to the one scientist I’d met covering the children’s symposium put on by the Moss Point Visionary Circle, Dr. Mark LaSalle. He is the director of the Pascagoula River Audubon center and has been on the ground there for six years, working with the bird enthusiasts, other environmental groups, government agencies and more. He agreed to talk with me and we met at the center on the river last Tuesday.

Mark is a very likable guy. To my untrained mind (I learned all the science I know back in high school), his approach to the spill contains no agenda, is based upon his experience and the data that is just now starting to surface on the aftermath. In a word, scientific. He also has the enthusiasm of Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, and their ability to translate arcane data into words normal folks like me can understand. It’s people like Mark we’ll need over the coming months and even years to explain what’s happening in the Gulf after the BP oil spill.

The Unexpected Victims

The stories in this blog and in the videos come primarily from two sources. The first is when someone tells me that there’s someone I need to talk with and then I follow the trail. For example, there was a woman inspecting a beach in Gatier who told me about the work the Audubon Society was doing at their response center in Moss Point. Audubon’s Finley Hewes pointed me to the children’s symposium put on by the Moss Point Visionary Circle and that’s where I met Darlene Carter. It works like that sometimes.

The other times I stumble upon them, like this one. I was trying to turn around on the narrow streets of Ocean Springs and saw a soup kitchen called “The Lord Is My Help”. That got me wondering if the spill had effected them. It has. They have been squeezed from both ends because the number of people needing their help is up and the donations are down.

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Their situation could possibly get worse as the Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) program is ended (which is happening now) and fewer tar balls float ashore lessening the need for cleanup workers. There are a lot of people who came into the area to take up this work. Some will stay and look for other work, but the economy is not kind to the unemployed these days. Some number of them will need the help of places like the “Lord Is My Help”. And now, they need yours.

Wings on the Ground

"What can I do to help out?"

That's probably the hardest question out there for most people when faced with the BP oil spill. There are no intuitive answers. You cannot just run out, find an oiled bird and clean it. You cannot walk down the beach picking up tar balls. You cannot buy a boat, install a giant vacuum and suck the oil out of the Gulf. But people still want to help.

The good news is that there are people and organizations whose jobs are to contribute to the recovery effort, like the National Audubon Society. They know birds and their habitats, and they have thrown their full weight behind this recovery effort.

With their unique expertise in the avian world, they have developed a variety of ways people can help... and you don't have to be in the Gulf region to do it. Sure, you can always donate money, but the Audubon Society can channel your efforts into something that can make a difference.

In this segment, I spoke with Finley Hewes and Dustin Renaud who spend each day marshaling the resources of the Audubon Society to action. Please watch this segment and pay attention to their answers to the question, "what can people do to help", in the second half of the video. They have a creative plan that I would never have thought of, and you do not have to be in the Gulf to do it.

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Yesterday, I interviewed Dr. Mark LaSalle, also of the Audubon Society for a more scientific perspective on the oil spill. That interview is currently in post production and will be posted in the next day or two.

Thanks to Finley and Dustin for their time and hard work.

Some Images From a Day of Rest... Sort of

A heat index of 115 kept most sane people indoors today, but I wanted to get out to shoot some b-roll late afternoon and early evening. Here are a couple of frame grabs shot on the beach in Biloxi.

No wonder why people fight back from disasters to live here.

More Fishermen Feeling Pain

I have tried to keep politics out of this blog because I have no agenda beyond telling the stories of people living with the BP oil spill. Yes, the spill has a host of political implications but they are outside the scope of the Little Red Tar Balls project. As such, when I received a link to a video produced by the Coffee Party, I watched with an eye out for some political agenda or point of view. I didn't see one save the full screen at the end. But they want to build their movement and that is completely reasonable. (I would have viewed a link from someone in the Tea Party or any other political group with the same circumspection.)

That aside, this video, produced in mid-July,  tells the story of some in the Gulf Coast Vietnamese fishing community in their own words with additional comments from Kaitlin Truong, the Chair for the group "Asian Americans for Change". The piece is well done and helps tell the broader story of what life is like in this region, right now.



Thanks to Kaitlin Truong for the video and Krystal Allan of WLOX TV for the connection and the ongoing moral support.