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A Slow-Motion Disaster: Photos From The Louisiana Oil Spill
A Slow-Motion Disaster: Photos From The Louisiana Oil Spill
A few days after the Deepwater Horizon sank beneath the waves and millions of gallons of sweet Louisiana crude started pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, Field & Stream asked photographer and FlyTalk blogger Tim Romano and me to drop everything and head for the coast to cover the unfolding disaster. Tim and I had never met, but we both had profound connections to the Lousiana marsh country. I lived in New Orleans as a young man, and have returned to fish the marshes over the years when ever I could. Tim was a volunteer in the clean-up efforts after Katrina, and is close friends with many of the best fishing guides in the region. Neither of us could accept the fact that all that oil was spewing out not fifty miles away from this place we’d both come to love and revere (what we, and everybody else we spoke with kept saying was “I just can’t seem to get my head around this…”). Neither of us could do anything about the spill. But we could help tell the stories of the people and places affected. And so neither of us hesitated a second when the call came.
We started our coverage in Hopedale, a small town 30 miles south of New Orleans that’s located in the heart of the fishing, shrimping, and oystering communities of the bayou. Tim had been here just last January, hunting and catching big bull reds. I’d last been here in December of 2009 with a lifelong fishing buddy and my ten-year-old son, Harold, on his first trip to the bayou. He caught his first big red, and altogether we picked up enough trout, reds, and prime blue crabs to feed the twenty people who stay at our house over the Christmas holidays. There is nowhere like this place on the entire planet.
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Photo Gallery Comments (9)
It's a sad deal for the people and the wildlife.
Outstanding piece of journalism, Tim and Hal. Kudos to F&S.com for getting you on the story right away. Written and photographed from the heart of the bayous, marches and peoples most affected. Thanks for this. This piece has "awards" written all over it.
This is a good article if you own stock in BP and the other 7 sisters. I feel that this should have never happened. It is the result of pure greed and corruption. There should have been more than one shut off valve in place before they started to do pressure tests. This is 100% BP's fault and they will just pay off the lawyers and walk away. The damage is just beginning and will never end as long as we allow greed to out weigh what is the truth.
Ok wait. Stop. Before we start going down this road let's remember that 11 families will not have fathers, sons, brothers, or husbands coming home again....ever. This resource which is all of the sudden under fire is also the same resource that powers our truck, bass boat, shrimp boat, off shore boat, the factory that built our fishing rod, fly rod, reel, fishing line, fishing lure, fish finder, rifle, ammmo, scope, tree stand, tent, "new outdoor toy this", "new outdoor toy that", the power plant that produces the electicty to watch our outdoor show, print our outdoor magazine, and blog, blog blog away on the internet. So. IF we want a cleaner safer energy for the future we need to skip wind power, skip solar, skip hybrid (all being dead end solutions) and start taking a real strong look at hydrogen-fuel cell technology. Then remember that this memorial day there will be 11 new graves with flowers on them.
Thanks F&S, Hal, and Tim for this great piece. My favorite part of your article: "But our insatiable thirst for energy, and our fantastically wasteful use of it, has created a bill that is coming due".
We are all, in part, to blame.
Here's a thought, If BP is so concerned about the enviromental damage, why are they trying only to bring the oil to the surface and into tankers??? why not simply seal the hole?
You don’t have to be here long to notice that these bayous are inhabited by a lot of tough, self-sufficient Americans who have lived for generations on their own sweat, blood, ingenuity, and the enormous wealth of the marsh. It’s not a wealth measured in dollars, and it can be fearsomely hard to get sometimes, but it has made for a uniquely free kind of life. The food, the music, and the conversation all reflect how powerful this place is, and how it has shaped the people who live in it, and love it, and know it as home.
EXTREMELY well written.
The sad thing is, that aside from the families who lost men on this rig, many more along the gulf states waterways will lose their livelihoods as a result of this spill. While the oil has been leaking since April 20, untold millions of gallons have escaped into an ecosystem that will be changed for decades to come. While I expect that BP will face a ton of fines (which it should), where is the public outcry for the Dept. of Energy to step in and lend some leadership?? Remember that we have a government that is supposed to be of the people and for the people- not sitting on the sidelines while one of the worst ecological disasters unfolds right before our eyes. Take a look at Valdez, Alaska- the people who fished those waters are no longer able to make their livings in the same way. The sad fact is that according to Fox News, 40 percent of our nation's seafood is harvested in the Gulf, and if you think that we'll be able to reverse this kind of long term damage anytime soon, you've not done your research.
The consumer will pay for this spill via BP-get ready for a bump at the pump, there so much wealth and power tied up to oil and gas that it won't do anything to stop the drilling and pollution, we are going to run with this thing into the next century until everyone will have a electric vehicles that have been around for decades. Exxon and BP will then use that wealth to power future generations with other forms of energy. Profit not environmentally driven corporate practice. I will miss the seafood more than driving something besides a electric car.
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It's a sad deal for the people and the wildlife.
Ok wait. Stop. Before we start going down this road let's remember that 11 families will not have fathers, sons, brothers, or husbands coming home again....ever. This resource which is all of the sudden under fire is also the same resource that powers our truck, bass boat, shrimp boat, off shore boat, the factory that built our fishing rod, fly rod, reel, fishing line, fishing lure, fish finder, rifle, ammmo, scope, tree stand, tent, "new outdoor toy this", "new outdoor toy that", the power plant that produces the electicty to watch our outdoor show, print our outdoor magazine, and blog, blog blog away on the internet. So. IF we want a cleaner safer energy for the future we need to skip wind power, skip solar, skip hybrid (all being dead end solutions) and start taking a real strong look at hydrogen-fuel cell technology. Then remember that this memorial day there will be 11 new graves with flowers on them.
Outstanding piece of journalism, Tim and Hal. Kudos to F&S.com for getting you on the story right away. Written and photographed from the heart of the bayous, marches and peoples most affected. Thanks for this. This piece has "awards" written all over it.
Thanks F&S, Hal, and Tim for this great piece. My favorite part of your article: "But our insatiable thirst for energy, and our fantastically wasteful use of it, has created a bill that is coming due".
We are all, in part, to blame.
You don’t have to be here long to notice that these bayous are inhabited by a lot of tough, self-sufficient Americans who have lived for generations on their own sweat, blood, ingenuity, and the enormous wealth of the marsh. It’s not a wealth measured in dollars, and it can be fearsomely hard to get sometimes, but it has made for a uniquely free kind of life. The food, the music, and the conversation all reflect how powerful this place is, and how it has shaped the people who live in it, and love it, and know it as home.
EXTREMELY well written.
This is a good article if you own stock in BP and the other 7 sisters. I feel that this should have never happened. It is the result of pure greed and corruption. There should have been more than one shut off valve in place before they started to do pressure tests. This is 100% BP's fault and they will just pay off the lawyers and walk away. The damage is just beginning and will never end as long as we allow greed to out weigh what is the truth.
The sad thing is, that aside from the families who lost men on this rig, many more along the gulf states waterways will lose their livelihoods as a result of this spill. While the oil has been leaking since April 20, untold millions of gallons have escaped into an ecosystem that will be changed for decades to come. While I expect that BP will face a ton of fines (which it should), where is the public outcry for the Dept. of Energy to step in and lend some leadership?? Remember that we have a government that is supposed to be of the people and for the people- not sitting on the sidelines while one of the worst ecological disasters unfolds right before our eyes. Take a look at Valdez, Alaska- the people who fished those waters are no longer able to make their livings in the same way. The sad fact is that according to Fox News, 40 percent of our nation's seafood is harvested in the Gulf, and if you think that we'll be able to reverse this kind of long term damage anytime soon, you've not done your research.
The consumer will pay for this spill via BP-get ready for a bump at the pump, there so much wealth and power tied up to oil and gas that it won't do anything to stop the drilling and pollution, we are going to run with this thing into the next century until everyone will have a electric vehicles that have been around for decades. Exxon and BP will then use that wealth to power future generations with other forms of energy. Profit not environmentally driven corporate practice. I will miss the seafood more than driving something besides a electric car.
Here's a thought, If BP is so concerned about the enviromental damage, why are they trying only to bring the oil to the surface and into tankers??? why not simply seal the hole?
Post a Comment