Report from the Gulf: Tracking the Oil Spill's Impact

Today has been a whirlwind experience -- the second day of extensive field assessment of what's occurring with the oil spill in the Gulf.

Yesterday, I picked up globules of oil on Orange Beach in Alabama and surveyed evidence of the Gulf spill in Mississippi. Today, hosted by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, we concentrated on Louisiana, starting with a visit to Grand Isle, the only human-inhabited barrier island in the state. We then took a boat ride south to Queen Bess Island, which is a major rookery teeming with brown pelicans and other birds. The island is alive with activity, but it is completely surrounded by a bright orange boom and by a concentric white absorbent boom within it, in order to fend off the oil that has been buffeting the island. The orange boom looked like it was covered in chocolate syrup and the white boom had turned a darker hue, absorbing oil that was on its way to the island. Despite the booms, the rocky shores of the island were covered in oil and we saw birds with oil and many who had not yet felt its effects. When we were there, workers were pulling up the white booms and replacing them with new ones to absorb more oil.

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