A Video Report from BP Oil Spill’s Surface

I’ll be continuing to post notes from my 10 hour tour of the Gulf Coast on Wednesday. Our boat captain was willing to take us as close to the Deepwater Horizon disaster site as the Coast Guard would let him go. He set us up straight west of the Horizon & made a run towards it, stopping just 10 miles west of the spot where 11 workers lost their lives.

It was an eerie feeling — both being so close to the site of the tragedy & standing on an ocean coated with oil. While oil that’s been hit with dispersants clumps into the now-familiar toxic red mess, untouched oil sits in a layer as thin as a layer of paint. It gave the water a strange smoothness — the wind didn’t ripple it like it usually would.

I finished this wind-blown clip just seconds before our boat captain hit the engines for home, worried a dispersant plane might fly over us:

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For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife and to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.