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.

View on ExposureRoom

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.