It has been eight days since the deep Water Horizon sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Today, the GRN continued to monitor the situation on the front lines. Early this morning I went out on a boat with Captain Raymond Schmitt, activists Jo Billups and Karen Harvill, and Reuters/Greenpeace photographer Sean Gardner from New Orleans. We spent most of the day in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge assessing the area for impacts and monitoring what efforts were underway to protect the birds and wildlife in this area.We were SHOCKED at what we found. Virtually nothing had been done to protect the estuary from the impending disaster. We saw countless beautiful flocks of birds nesting, feeding, and carrying on like a normal day in paradise. Where were the booms? Where were the boats? Where were the thousands of people and 50+ vessels that BP and the Coast Guard are doing everything they can to protect this vital habitat? Our cameras tell a much different story than what we’ve been hearing in the media. We saw miles and miles and miles of federally recognized refuge habitat that is simply on its own to face the oil sheen that had already begun creeping in. Basically, we saw birds in the bulls eye. When we finally made it out to the end of South East Pass, we did come across some booms that had been set up to protect another area. Yet, as the pictures we took clearly show, if these booms are all those birds have standing between them and millions of gallons of oil, they’re in trouble, and so are we. Just as these birds will be no match for this BP Oil drilling disaster, these booms are no match for the breaking waves and high seas that occur whenever the wind blows. This is a man made disaster and tragedy and today only made that all the more clear.Jonathan Henderson is GRN’s resilient communities organizer
