Dead sea turtle found near Waveland, MS Photo by Shirley Tillman
Nearly two weeks ago a new oil spill from a shallow well off the Louisiana coast leaked oil into the water that resulted in a huge slick that stretched for miles and polluted parts of Grand Isle and other nearby marshes. The Coast Guard says it was due to oil leaking from a well being capped by Anglo-Suisse, an oil drilling firm based in Texas. Initially the company said it had leaked only 5 gallons of oil.
But the oil slick was clearly much bigger. According to a Skytruth, an analysis of the slick using satellite imagery shows the well may have gushed as much as 640,000 gallons of Louisiana crude into the sea. It's not clear what impact this oil spill has had on marine life.
In Mississippi, Shirley Tillman believes BP oil has something to do with the dead sea life she constantly encounters by the shore. And she wonders how this may affect vacationers now flocking to the region. "It's bad enough for turtles and dolphins to be dying, but should people and their children be swimming in this water too?"
That is not the kind of message BP or local politicians want to hear. Major PR campaigns are underway to convince people the Gulf is normal and the seafood is safe. That's the message they want to people to hear.
But that message is at odds with the views of Gulf residents like Shirley Tillman. She sees a different reality every day she walks the beach.
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