Wathen: BP Slick Covers Dolphins & Whales, Video + text

(9AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

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.

it will take years at this rate to gather up even a portion of the oil that is on the surface today, some of it looks more like bruised internal organs of the human body than the surface of the ocean and yet that is what it is    ( min 2:20)

some looks like a child had sprayed silly string over the surface, yet there is nothing silly about these strings of oil that float over the Gulf of Mexico today

the first time I came out and saw a fire there was only one.  today when we got here , there were 4,  

within a couple of passes there were 7.  from the size of these fires, its seems that not only are we trying to kill everything in the Gulf, but what flies over it as well

this toxic environment can’t be good for the birds

rainbows of death that cover the entire horizon

these rainbows stretch for miles in every direction

you can’t see a clear place on the Gulf anywhere around this

each of these fires burns in the equivalent (space)  in less than an olympic size swimming pool

from one point  1.2 miles off the shores, to ground zero  (at the source 90 miles away)

we haven’t flown over a single sq. inch of clear water imagine how many fires it will take to burn that much oil

there has to be something better than putting all this toxic smoke into the atmosphere

why aren’t there more ships with suction devices that can pull this oil out closer to the source, put it on ships, recycle it somehow  

now there’s a new kid on the block

(note.  he is saying “O” 4000 but the name of this floating rig is the “Q” 4000, which I have changed for accuracy )

Q4000 burns the oil while skimmers clean it off the top.  Burns crude off the bottom of the Gulf.   sits next to the Discoverer Enterprise which is burning off the methane.  in the meantime, these  tiny skimmers work around to gather more to burn

why is the Discovery Enterprise not drilling a new relief well .  there’s 2 being drilled,  why is this not drilling.   we need all the help we can get

if this rig can burn the crude off the bottom ( video shows the Q4000 and its “evergreen” oil burner flare )

can the methane that being burned not also be channeled thru that and burned, and  this boat be drilling a new relief well    minute 5:15

the flames from the fire at Q4000 are so hot that massive amounts of water have to be sprayed on the boat constantly to keep it from burning    minute 5:29

DD2 sits on the foreground drilling drilling the new relief well  all the fires on the horizon pump smoke into the atmosphere    minute  5:35

now we have this massive fire from hell putting toxins in the air

all the fires on the horizon

now we have this massive fire from hell pumping these toxins into the air

will the gulf ever be the same again

as we headed out to Louisiana,    mile after mile of rainbow  heavy heavy slick oil

And then a circle appeared.  Can there possibly be life under this ?  In the shadow of all that smoke,  could there possible be something alive?    min 6:24

we made one more pass around ground zero and found this      min 6:28

there was movement in the oil

we saw this pod of dolphins obviously struggling just to breathe 36 dolphins       min 6:39

photo by John L Wathen, from video.  Dolphin pod swimming in oil,  near the blown out BP oil well 6/21/10

(caption on video says 36 dolphins, then another pod with 18 dolphins )

then we found this guy,

photo by John L Wathen, from video. Sperm whale swimming in the oil.  

Then we saw this guy,  a sperm whale swimming in the oil, had just breached, along his back, we could see red patches of crude,  as if he had just been basted for broiling

then this pod of dolphins some already dead, some in their death throes    min  7:00

photo by John L Wathen, from video.  Dolphin pod struggling in the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

it seemed to be some were raising their heads looking at the fires

Why is my world on fire,   why would the humans doing this to me ?

as we approached Chandelier Island, I wasn’t surprised to see oil along the beach given the difficulty to putting boom out and making it stay  along the islands it’s going to be impossible to keep the oil out

I shudder to think of what happens when a storm does come thru here. all the oil we just flown over will be alongside this

the marshes the boom  that you see now, will be piled up and covered along the shore covered with oil

here’s a new island of some sort, possibly one of those new man made barriers trying to keep the oil out

but if you look along the back shore

you see thousands of birds in distress.  where are they going to go ?   another encroachment by man.  min  8:00

as we flew along the beach

surprised to find the sharks along this barrier island, in the shallow waters seemed to be competing for food.  min  8:28

pelicans flying over the beach,  hopefully they’ll find a dry island somewhere without oil where they can land safely  as I looked back out to see tho, I had to ask myself,

what’s going to happen to this nursing mother ? ” (shows dolphin and baby dolphin calf in water )

(music, voiceover,  ending and credits)

      {  “Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit .  If I thought you were sent by the Creator, I might be induced to think you had the right to dispose of me.  Do not misunderstand me,  but understand me fully with reference my affection for the land.   I never said the land was mine to do  to w/ what I chose,  the one who has the right to dispose of it, is the One who has Created it.  I claim the right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to return to yours . ”  }  

– Chief Joseph, to American leaders in Washington.  words spoken by Robbie Robinson, Red Road Ensemble.  (per hccreekkeeper)    

video and photos by John L Wathen

www.bpoilslick.blogspot.com

From the BP Slick blog. http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com…

 “This is without a doubt, the most disturbing video I have ever produced.

I saw at least 100 Dolphins dying or struggling to get out of the oil. It was many miles from any water that was not contaminated. In all likelihood, the Dolphins and Sperm Whale seen in this video are dead by now.

The Dolphins were disoriented. Some already dead and others struggling to keep their heads up high enough to see the fires. The Sperm Whale was covered in oil.

We have to spread this around the world! Who will be accountable for their lives?”

“Spread the story please.”

–  Hurricane Creekkeeper, John L Wathen