Grand Isle, Louisiana, Walking the Beach

My sister stopped and pick up a tar ball. "You can feel that they are squishy." she said as she held it for the camera, and there were lots more. What we first thought was blackened firewood was actually tar balls, still coming ashore a year after the disaster.

We looked for shells, but Renita only found a few, a far cry from previous walks on this beach. A few shorebirds walked the surf line, but nothing like years past, My sister and brother in law told us stories of the spill and cleanup efforts and you could sense the Isle's people are still reeling.

There were signs of life and I took an image of some ghost shrimp mounds at the tide line. A school of finger mullet were backed up on shore, perhaps a school of fish had chased them there or perhaps they were resting from predators.
We had to stop our walk as we reached the state park boundary and the beach there is still closed, Why? There is much still closed and without any explanation ,(Elmers Island ). We saw some young people burying a friend in the sand and we didn't see any signs of oil as they dug down deep.
Later, we went to an art show and saw images of dead birds and spilled oil. One of the saddest things was the art work drawn and painted by the Isle's school children. So much sadness from kids who had just recovered from Katrina and now faced more turmoil. It made me think of how protected our children were while being raised on the high plains of Wyoming.

I could say more but the storied they told us are still too fresh and my mind is reeling from the promises they had been told, some kept but most still broken. The stories of greed and the stories of how some profited from the spill are what sickens me as much as anything. Of out of state doctors and lawyers buying boats and then parking them on the island. They would then register them as vessels of opportunity and receive a thousand dollars a day for a boat never used while at the same time some of the shrimpers received nothing.......
Did you know the workers on the oil rig were sequestered for two days, and not allowed to see their families, until they signed a release form excusing BP and others from any claims? There are many more stories but this post has been to negative for me, and I won't darken your mood any more. Clear skies ,(Save the Birds).