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Gerald Herbert / AP
Nesting pelicans fly on Cat Island in Barataria Bay in Plaquemines Parish, La., on April 11, 2012. The island has eroded greatly since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill two years ago.
Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert says he will never forget what he saw on his first visit to Cat Island, just over a month after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 20, 2010:
Noisy brown pelicans were flying around and swimming in the water, which was carrying waves of newly arrived thick crude. The oil was collecting on the shoreline. Some birds were too coated to fly, looking distressed.
On the lush island rookery, filled with thick mangrove, off-white pelican eggs were smeared with oil from birds sitting on top of them in nests.
I took photographs, documenting the first pelican rookeries affected by the spill. There was a pit in my stomach; I thought this colony may well be doomed.
Gerald Herbert / AP
A pelican sits on the last remaining mangrove remnant on what used to be a small island, as it erodes into the bay next to Cat Island on April 11, 2012.
Herbert decided he had to return to the islands off the coast of Louisiana. A year ago, PhotoBlog published a series of his photographs that showed a dramatically changed ecosystem where land was eroding and vegetation was dead or dying.
Video: Prosecutors preparing criminal charges in BP spill
The photographer made a third visit to Cat Island last week, with the disaster now two years distant but its consequences plain to see. "The deterioration was shocking," he writes:
The island had eroded and was much smaller. What was once mangrove so thick only a bird could enter was now black stumps sticking out of the sand. There were fewer pelicans, and they were nesting on bare earth, exposed to the next storm surge.
As I looked out across the water, I got a sick feeling. I thought this may all be gone soon, only a GPS coordinate in the Gulf and a story about what natural beauty was once here.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Pelicans are seen flying over mangrove isolated in the water near the heavily eroded shoreline of Cat Island on April 11, 2012.
Gerald Herbert / AP
The last remnant of what was a small island near Cat Island is seen as it is eroded by the surf on April 11, 2012.
Marine biologist and University of South Florida Prof. Steve Murawksi talk about the two year anniversary of the BP oil spill.
Leave a Comment:
Wait a minute...hasn't that been cleaned up by BP? I thought everything was back in order I seen it on T.V. ....shrimp were fine, birds all cleaned up, beaches, etc. While we're discussing oily problems...the pipeline running from Canada to Texas..is headed for China and abroad none will be used here in the states? Is that right?
Actually what made the news this week was the awful state the sea life in the Gulf was in. There are high incidences of deformities in shrimp and fish.
Slowly, but surely, we drown in our own waste, like bacteria in a petri dish.
Raven,
The product from the pipeline would be sold on the open market to the highest bidder.
...and then he went home and had fried chicken for supper. A much more humane form of hypocrite to be sure...
Skorned...how does that make him a hypocrite? He is only documenting what the scientific community predicted. That being said, nobody disputes that we need energy to support our lifestyle. Thinking people however, believe that aquatic ecosystems are related and will ultimately affect our ability to breath, drink, and eat, and that our failure to understand these ecosystems and act to protect them will ultimately lead to the demise of humanity. They also believe that we need to act now to learn how to produce and use fossil fuels safely and conservatively, and double down on finding more sustainable and renewable resources going forward. Too much for you? I thought so. Thinking does require some effort.
How did this story turn into a debate GOP vs Dem ? If the folks living near the Islands says everything is OK and this is all a "liberal media" story, Why then do they say to feds Keep the funds coming ?? If there is no problem NO FUNDS or all the free advertizing to come on down stay on the Gulf end it ! The locals say everything is fine down there just read the comments on this story
Don't ask questions of the unsupervised kids and interns that seem to run this page. They arrived at the site with fully colonized minds. Otherwise they couldn't have gotten the keys.
I don't think that's what you need to worry about. More like your own prejudices and biases towards new and relevant information that you don't care for.
Fear not mortals.
When I tire of your doings,
I shall purge you from my back,
like the parasites you are.
Sincerely,
Mother Nature
Ms Nature,
Fear not?
I live here.
The seafood is fine, and so is Cat Island.
Sometimes the mangroves (and there are not that many of them) die out and are reborn.
Most of Cat Island is covered in pines and grasses.
Errosion on all of the barrier Islands was a direct effect of Katrina.
That is why they are called "barrier" Islands, (we expect them to erode in a strong storm system and protect the coast).
The Pelicans have made a great comeback here.
Most of the original problem was DDT.
Now I see them flying in formation along the beach every day.
AND Cat Island is NOT their only place of residence, we have many more Islands near by.
This "reporter" doesn't know crap from shinola and only wants to advance the BP scare.
The Natural Resources Defense Council the sea life is not.
"Errosion on all of the barrier Islands was a direct effect of Katrina"
Perhaps you didn't read, but the author took his photos between 4-20-2010 and present.Doesn't seem like Katrina occurred in that period.
Most of the original problem was DDT.--- Cat Island is NOT their only place of residence, we have many more Islands near by.---This "reporter" doesn't know crap from shinola and only wants to advance the BP scare
Not that make me feel better, you can't contaminate the mangrove with DDT but drenching it in crude oil is OK. And let's face it, if we contaminate one island there are always other islands. Stated by a true steward of the earth.
Fear mongering elitist news bastards....provoking the most insidious ignorance in America today...so tired of the free speech of idiots. Maybe some people should shut the Fudge UP! They should not be allowed to write a sentence without researching all aspects of a story, and reporting those as well!
Wait, so let me get this straight, Wendy. You don't believe this news item, with photo evidence documented on 3 separate occasions, but you're more than willing to immediately believe the opposing account of some jackass anonymous commenter who "claims" to live there, and offers only unsubstantiated claims and no evidence? Is that about right?
Unbelievable. You are the absolute last sort of person who should be evaluating truth claims or others' freedom of speech. Idiot.
Allen, if you don't live twelve miles away from this Island like I do, then you are no expert.
The Gulf of Mexico is a river/ocean system.
Most of the oil got into the river current of the Mississippi river, ended up in the gulf stream and went East.
We, AND the pelicans are fine on the MS gulf coast.
Oh, in case you don't know, Cat Island is 8 miles South of Pass Christian,MS.
Scabby, first of all if we are talking about a DIFFERNT CAT Island, (which may be the case) these are not photos of Cat Island in MS.
I agree with Viewer Ready. I live in Jefferson Parish which borders Plaquemines, and the marsh islands have always been eroding, but the state uses a dredging plan to create new islands, and some islands pop up naturally when sediment builds up in one area. I fish and shrimp all throughout the marsh, and I've never seen any deformed or discolored sea life. This does not mean every inch of the wetlands is perfect, but I assure you it's nothing to lose sleep over. The 2011 shrimp catch was better than the year before the oil spill. You can get the data from the LA Wildlife and Fisheries. I remember in the early 90s when the Times Picayune ran a story saying the Louisiana wetlands will be completely gone in some 20 or 30 years due to erosion. I was very worried about it until my father told me they were saying the same thing back in the 70s and 80s. Erosion is a big problem, but so far the proactivity has slowed it down. We just need to keep funding the programs, and hopefully the federal government will allow us to keep some of the Gulf oil profits to help pay for them.
If you're really worried about all this, just come visit the area and see for yourself. The media exaggerates everything.
from US Geological Society fact sheet:
Approximately half the Nation's original wetland habitats have been lost over the past 200 years..... Louisiana's wetlands today represent about 40 percent of the wetlands of the continental United States, but about 80 percent of the losses.
Hmmm. Scientists or rednecks. Who should I believe? Hmmm.
Monkey, I'm sure that's true. We are losing the wetlands, but as I said before, we have programs in place to restore them, and new islands have been created. It's not all doom and gloom over here.
Monkey, tell us rednecks something we don't know.
I suppose you think we are idiots?
Natural erosion is an ever changing animal.
It happens with OR without oil spills etc.
Just think, if Obama hadn't blocked foreign help for over a month to appease his union base, the oil never would have reached shore in the first place.
Besides, according to Obama the water is fine, the fisheries are fine, everything was a false alarm, best president BP could have bought.
As stewards of nature mankind is a failure.
He will ruin those ruining the earth. And, yes originally we were the steward of the earth. Now if we are a failure, what is the solution?
Obama's solution is to funnel billions to Brazil to exploit their offshore fields and watch China drill 40 miles off our coast yet block our much more responsible industry. Do you think China gives a damn about Cuba's coasts or ours!
I know it's a photo blog, but some data on this subject would help these horrifying pictures with context. The Mississippi Delta has lost an area of land the size of Delaware since 1930. Millions of acres of forest and freshwater bayou subside every year. A football field size of land every thirty seconds. These are vital wetlands for millions of birds, ducks, migratory songbirds, 353 species altogether in what biologists call the Mississippi Flyway. The marsh is also a spawning ground for shrimp, crab and fish. And all of this has been disappearing for years. The oil spill made it much worse. But the reason the land is vanishing is due to two other major reasons. One is that there has been 10,000 miles of canals dug by the oil industry since the 1940s, canals that widen and exacerbate the subsidence. The other reason is the canals the Army Corps of Engineers built north and around New Orleans to help guide the third largest river system in the world out straight into the gulf and off the continental shelf. Silt had been gathering for 7,000 years to help form the famous boot shape of the state. But that silt is no longer being allowed to make new land. What was once forest has turned into grassy marsh at best, and whole islands, like in these shocking pictures, are disappearing! Mangrove forest is a vital ecosytem that is disappearing on our coasts, and could have been instrumental in absorbing much of the storm surge from hurricanes like Katrina. It's a big secret, yet a big catastrophe in an ignored region. There are solutions on the table, but no political will, and public numbed with stupidities. And a culture that has lived here in the old way for centuries hangs in the balance. Please read Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell for more.
Dearwoman1984, another theory I heard years ago was that the weight of sediment being carried by the Mississippi River was literally forcing the crust of the Earth down in that region, and thus the sea level to rise. While much of the river silt load may well be diverted from its original channel, it should be creating new land where this flow is now diverted to. I'm not saying your wrong, just that something doesn't add up. River silt would definitely create land over time, however if the problem is too much silt, that it is pushing the crust down at a faster rate than the deposits can build it up, that sounds like a problem outside of mans scope. This to me sounds like the normal process that would occur with or without humans. The main affect that man would have is increased silt in the river due to agricultural practices, that is increased silt from run-off from farm land. That said, the same thing would happen even with farming throughout the entire watershed, just that it would take more time.
Well said
What? Barrier islands appearing & disappearing, moving around? Breaking news! It's never happened before! What to do, cry or build a seawall?
Too bad journalists rarely bother to learn before they write ...
Do they typically shrink this fast after spontaneous die off of vegetation? Is that a normal, natural part of the cycle?
great and thoughtful question from Scabby. Typical Reactionary comment from a usual "conservative".
Being a resident of Louisiana, i can tell you all that what's going on down here is definitely not being fully relayed to the general public, and nation. there is still oil coming onshore, and there are things coming out of the gulf that i've never seen before: deformed shrimp missing their eyes, crabs that appear to be dying from the inside out, fish with lacerations on them, fish with black gunk in the gills - it's scary, really scary! There are still dolphins washing up on beaches, and yet no one reports it anymore. And what about the human impacts from BP and their corexit??? People are sick with rashs, sore's, etc.... but that's not being well reported either. Children and adults are going swimming in the gulf and coming out with burning rash's on their skin that don't go away. That's scary stuff people!
Yes the land was erroding prior to the spill, but the oil spill didn't help the situation, it only assisted with making it worse by killing off additional vegitation and stressing the habitat. 90% of the problems with errossion down here comes from the miles of canals and water ways that were dug for oil exploration that were never filled in. If federal and state agencies don't act fast, a historical part of our country will be lost forever, and not due to mother nature, but due to man's own ignorance.
Big Oil is spending BIG MONEY to keep it all out of public view. People down here hate BP and what they have done to us. Things won't be back to normal in our lifetime, so we can only pray that mother nature will eventually restore herself.
must be spending REALLY big money to keep the left oil hating crowd and environmental orgs. silent. i know BP donated tons of cash to obama but never thought it was that much. looks like another reason to vote him out.
JT @9 - Mother Jones magazine and website reports frequently on this - see "BP's Corexit Oil Tar Sponged Up by Human Skin" from Tue Apr. 17. Corexit is absorbed by skin and shows up under ultraviolet light. It can't be wiped off ... see the pics and form your own conclusion.
It was all about BP until people started calling Obama out for delaying foreign help for over a month to appease his union base. Once he started taking heat, all of the sudden "crisis averted" became the talking point. You won't get the leftist media to worked up on this because they know if it wasn't for his foot dragging, the oil never would have made it to shore in the first place.
In contrast, Bush suspended the Jone's act immediately after Katrina. That's the difference between caring about victims vs caring about votes.
Yes I agree with you - BP has it's own campaign. There is no way it's back to normal. There were reported 26,000 capped oil wells in the Gulf. That's way too much activity for any natural environment. And moving silt around - we know what is in silt these day - farmers chemicals and industrial waste. I hope that America doesn't forget what BP did and tried to escape. Hang em high. Evenin Canada - the going after oil and gas in the earth has left a badly ravaged environmental situation. It is power of the companies and activists that stop them. US gets a lot of money for off shore drilling fees.
Best of everything to U in the Gulf.
i don't get it. are we suppose to fill in the blanks? just assume why it changed? great reporting there guys. keep up the good hard reporting.
It's always better to do your own research anyway.
I'm failing to see how an oil spill makes land disappear. Thanks MSNBC, for trying to make a bad situation worse.
onermailliw,
Oil killed the trees which had rooted the island and now erosion appears to be washing the island away.
More like storm wash, the ebb and flow that is any land near current and tidal movement.
Coastlines are not static. Deal with it.
I've been there...it doesn't look bad. If you want to see crap, look in the cities.
Another liberal hit piece against oil. If the author is really concerned about bird populations, maybe he should focus on where the problem really lies: Wind Power.
"A report by the National Research Council estimated that wind turbines kill approximately 100,000 birds every year. The American Bird Conservancy claims the number could be triple that estimate -- affecting the songbird community most of all. '
http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Wind_031212.html
I wondered where these marsh birds came from that are nesting in my urban neighborhood. They are Yellow Night Herons. Probably about two dozen nested in the trees around my neighborhood. From what I've read they usually nest around marshes in the gulf, Since I am 600 miles from the gulf my first thought was that these birds are taking refuge and their habitat must be destroyed. How sad :(
If you were a scientist you would realize that they are not as fragile as the fear mongerers would have you believe. The fact they are now in your neighborhood means they did not need the marshes to nest.
This is actually not a new trend. As game animals have begun to realize that man is no danger, they are repopulating suburban and urban areas. There are 1700 coyotes in the Chicago area alone. Deer have become downright pests in many suburbs, requiring animal control to thin the herds.
From personal experience, when I was in CA wine country, they released three wild turkeys. The next year there were over 30, the year after that there were over 300, I took pictures to document their growth. I moved after that so who knows how many there are now, and that was just in my subdivision!
Go ahead, vote for him again.
Obama biggest recipient of BP cash.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html
They don't report it because we as a nation don't really care. We act like we do but what we really care about is the next stupid overpriced device from Apple. We burn gas and stand in line to spend $600 on one more megapixel and toss the old one in a closet. That was SO last year should be Americas slogan.
What's funny is I know many liberals and conservatives and it is the conservatives that are interested in solar panels and electric cars! I've found it very true that 99% of liberals live like conservatives, they just want everyone else to live like liberals. The Al Gores out number the Ed Begleys by 100 to 1.
Liberals are interested in spending other people's money, not their own.
P.S. I'm a conservative with 10KW of solar ONLY because thanks to China they are finally viable. My next car will be electric, but only after 5-10 years when they are viable.
But the story is soooo consistent with all the others where the number of humans are soaring while cat island is shrinking i mean the number of animals are getting fewer. While romney has 5 kids and 15 grandkids. It's easy to see why mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo have such an easy time saying that they will do better for the economy. They don't take into account the environment. They say that co2 emissions should be increased a thousand fold because keystone pipeline will bring jobs & huge amounts of gasoline refining. That planned parenthood and family planning organizations should be scrapped. That all families in the world should be entitled to a large a family as they want.
But unlike mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo, some of us don't ignore the story of cat island. That it's getting smaller and where vegetation is dying. No. No. Sure we want an economy. But we must have a sustainable environment too. No. No say mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo. I tell you they want to see the planet depopulated.
If it wasn't for Obama blocking foreign help for over a month to appease his union base the oil never would have reached land. Obama funneled billions to Brazil so they could drill off shore, I guess he gets a pass because it's Brazil's beaches not ours right? BTW, Brazil's field is a full mile deeper than where BP was.
The start of this was when we tried to control the flooding on the rivers that empty into the Gulf. That prevented silt from rebuilding the naturally subsiding land. It also reduced the natural barrier that helped absorb some of the tidal surge when hurricanes hit.
Mangroves can't be too much on land or too much in water. They live on the edge.
Being from Louisiana we have been complaining about the barrier islands disappearing for over 50 years only to have the Federal Government play politics. The Democrats blame the Republicans and the Republicans blame the Democrats and nobody will get their thumbs out of their butts and do something. I am fifty and I have seen these island shrink to postage stamps and it is because of the Army Corp on Incompetent Engineering. The same group who failed to properly design, build, and keep up the levees properly around New Orleans and then tried to blame the common people around New Orleans saying it was their fault.
what? erosion is bp's fault. Isnt oil like asphalt? wouldnt it help prevent the erosion of the sandy land by cementing it all together? hmmm many questions.
simply, shhhh your going to make the enviro wackos mad!!
To me the issue is risk management, this incident was forseeable and therefore preventable. This management should be held accountable to the full extent of the law. If corporations (management, the people that make the decisions) were personally held accountable, I think some of these issues would stop. These people make and alot of money and they are smart, they are aware of the risks and make choises, so if they wish to act in a recless manner, then they should pay the price. Heck we send some low functioning loser to prison for several years for shoplifting, but disrupting, in some cases distroying thousands of citizens lives and damaging the environment, we have to have a discussion about what the right thing to do is. WTF
roger, how many of the parts on your computer and smart phone are made from oil bi-products?
One more thing. I don't think that the ex's being sent off is a problem, there are many to take their place and maybe just maybe the new ones will get the message--you will be held accountable.
Who cares.. The stupid birds only contribute to the problems. They eat the fish that help break down the oil enzymes. Those stupid birds deserve what they get. You people care more for these filthy creatures then you care for human beings. I could care less if they go extinct. A new species will emerge as old species go extinct. That my friends, is a fact! Look it up...
What about the new species that you say will emerge? Just say in advance that they will be stupid, too. All species stupid. Except yours. Except you. No life worthy of protection and concern but your own.
Thanks field guy.. I could not have said it any better then you just did.. I feel the exact same way..
Contrary to what some people may think, these birds are a vital part of the wetlands. They eat fish, which eat other stuff down the food chain. Some bacteria break oil down where nature can handle it. They are the food for small sea life, not birds. If any part of the food chain is removed, it will take centuries for the ecosystem to rebalance things. Something else has to evolve to take the birds place. The focus of our country should be on avoiding future spills, and trying to help restore the natural balance of life in that extremely important area.