Tag: whales

Warning.  Heartbreaking.  

BP Oil Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales, by hccreekkeeper, John L Wathen.  June 21, 2010.  

BP slick Covers Dolphins and Whales.mov    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

video by hccreekkeeper   aka John L Wathen , with Tom Hutchins of SouthWings, flight pilot, and author Roger David Helbar  (author of Saved By the Sea, A love story with fish) who on  June 21 2010 flew over the Gulf to find the source of the BP slick

My imperfect transcript.  (not exact, few words skipped. minute numbers added for reference)

“It didn’t take long after leaving the shore,  to find our first oil.

In the mouth of Mobile Bay, there were patches of light sheen seen behind the islands.  oil you couldn’t see it from the beach  but

there was a solid mass of oil  

on previous flights all, behind safeway ? island,  we’d seen was light sheen

now it was turning into the darker  pink mass,….     the farther out into the Gulf we got, the more consistent it became

at 17 mile out  it was obvious the entire Gulf was covered at this point.  there was no more clean water. heavy layers of oil covered the entire horizon

as far as you could see

the bands were getting thicker

at 23 miles out we encountered the heaviest sheen yet, the dark pink and purple

it was obvious this was coming to our beaches there was nothing we could do about it

at  23 mi out, we encountered the heaviest sheen yet,  the water there was a deep purple maroon blue, it looked almost like a rainbow,  boats on the surface looked tiny on the compared to the horizon

the scope of this is beyond belief.

We arose not so early on our last day in San Diego and I stole a few minutes online while Deb and Laurie still slept.  Alas, the laptop’s battery became too discharged and it was time to give up on that.  Returning to the room, I discovered everyone was almost ready for breakfast.  After a hearty meal at the Waffle Spot, it was off to Mission Bay Park and a very long line of cars trying to enter.  When we reached the booth, we discovered it was two or three lines coming from different directions.

Our first adventure was a ride up the Skytower, which is a rotating elevator car which rises 265 feet.  I got several photos from it.  Sorry about the occasional light bulb in the middle of a photo.

On the left is a shot of the Shamu stadium complex.  Shows are in the amphitheater at the back.  The “green rooms” for the stars are this side of the huge fake fluke.  At the lower left is the restaurant arena, where one can dine with a whale show.  We declined that notion.

But we did choose to start our day by taking in the Shamu show, which is entitled Believe.

Whale Sign

Yes:  Don’t Kill the Whales