Hi everyone. I’m sure we’ll be getting some views from CNN.com and the story they have posted of us. We are on our way back north to our respective homes and wanted to thank everyone for their support. We also would like to recognize that there are many people in the Gulf who are helping, not just us.

The unfortunate circumstance many of us volunteers run into are the limitations put on volunteers. This situation is unique because oil is a hazardous contaminate and to work directly with the substance, wildlife, or habitats affected directly by the spill requires many hours of training. Also, BP has given many of these true ‘hands on’ positions to paid workers. This shouldn’t discourage volunteers from going down to the Gulf because it is not just the animals, plants, and beaches but also the communities that are suffering.

We do have some more stories from our time in the Gulf and many more pictures and video. We are also exploring the idea of better industrial solutions to the oil boom. Our work is not finished just because we are leaving the Gulf (for now!) just like the disaster is not completely resolved when the news crews leave.

Thursday afternoon, we decided to drive out to Waveland, MS, where we had received word that oil had washed ashore the day before. After driving down a long dirt road under construction, we began to see BP contractors on the beaches doing what they normally do, collecting tar balls and contaminated sand. As we drove, we noticed the first of the beach “Closed” signs we had seen all month, posted every 500ft . About a mile down the road, we came across Waveland citizens, an EPA worker and Waveland City Council members, looking and photographing something on and by the side of the road. As we got closer, we were able to see an abundance of oil that had washed onto the road during the previous night’s high tide. Upon further inspection, we noticed that where we were and further down the road, the oil had not only washed ashore and up on to the road but sadly, it had also made its way into the marsh on the other side of the road. A few sections of boom had broken apart and washed ashore and into the marsh as well. (see pictures below)

The EPA worker stated that a small amount of oil washed ashore the night before and BP contractors were called in to clean it up. But this time, she was quite frustrated that a massive amount had washed up, and that no BP workers had responded to the immediate threat to the marsh, but instead were working on the beaches a mile or so away nearer to the Silver Slipper Casino.

We were informed that the dark color change right off shore was not fresh water and salt water mixing but were, in fact, enormous plumes of liquid oil floating below the surface. Just barely visible with the naked eye, I tried to capture the color change with my polarized sunglasses, which made seeing the plumes a little easier. As if the oil that washed ashore and into the marshes wasn’t enough, now plumes a few hundred yards long and about a hundred yards wide were right off shore just waiting to be washed up and into the bayou.

Early last Friday, on our way to our IRD work-site, we got a call from Leslie Back at Hands On Mississippi; we had been to see her earlier in the week to see if she could line up some volunteer opportunities to keep us busy over the next week. To our delight, she was calling to give us contact information for her contact, Mozart at the Audubon Society‘s outpost in Pascagoula. We contacted him during our lunch break, and set up a 9am meeting for this morning.

Our meeting with Mozart was short and sweet; we were given full artistic license to go document/film/photograph the impact of the bp oil spill on the southern Mississippi environment and its wildlife so that a short documentary film could be produced at a later date. Needless to say, we were all very enthusiastic about the challenge being presented to us.

The meeting ended when a group of high school students from Visions Service Adventures arrived to learn all about the Audubon Society’s mission, history, and a hands-on lesson about composting in your backyard. We left with our new directive, fired-up about doing something we all really enjoy.

Update: A few of my favorite photos from the past week of Audubon work:

This evening we had a photo on CNN’s AC360.

Yesterday evening, we decided to drive down to the section of Long Beach we were at on Sunday (where we found the oily bottle) to see if any other oil had come ashore after the storms we had Sunday night and most of the day Monday.

Driving East on Highway 90 through Gulfport and Biloxi, we passed around a hundred BP Contractors on the beach a mile from our destination from the previous day.

Once parked, we had our cameras out, our Designers Giving Back shirts on, expecting to maybe see a tar ball or two. To see not only a few tar balls or objects covered in oil, but tens of thousands of oil globs scattered across the beach and in the surf was nothing short of mind-blowing.

The same beach that we were swimming at, just over 24 hours earlier, was now covered in oil from the spill. As we walked west, the amount of visible tar balls doubled, then tripled. Oil covered boom had also come ashore and was laying 20 feet from the surf line.

Oil Blobs on Biloxi Beach (Long Beach) from Charles Beal on Vimeo.

On the beach, we met a local couple who pointed out a tree that they got married under. As if that tree, destroyed by Hurricane Gustav, wasn’t bad enough, the spill had now ruined what the couple called, “Their Beach”. It really puts the whole region in a new perspective; seeing how much the locals have dealt with, with hurricanes and the ongoing recovery & rebuilding effort, and now having to cope with the oil spill, the effects of which will be felt for many years to come.

Update: The following day we woke up early to pay a visit to the same location again, before heading to the VRC, to see what effect the BP contractors had had on the beach. We arrived at Long Beach around 7am to find the area the the BP Contractors cleaned up last night had not only been re-covered in oil, but this time the oil globs were bigger. Does this mean, each and every day and night, more and more Oil will wash up? Stay tuned…we’ll be checking back regularly.