The morning after a full day at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, I photographed some officials arriving in Houma to meet and see what was up with the oil.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, center, talks with U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao, left, and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu Friday, April 30, 2010. (Looks like a little more than "talks with" though)
On Saturday, Shrimp boats from Terrebonne parish were getting ready to head out and help clean up the oil. I was lucky enough to be able to get on board one of the boats (The Mariah Jade) and cover the crew as they helped save their coastline and careers.
Kim Chauvin kisses her sons, Dusty and David before the head out.
Dusty Chauvin steers the Mariah Jade down the Intracoastal as his brother David works out in the wheel house.
Shrimp Boots.
Funny story behind this photo... We got on the boat around 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I didn't know the route we were taking, I just knew we were going to the spill in the Gulf. Four hours into the day, I thought we were making good progress and must be getting close to the Gulf. (I was inside the cabin) John, the reporter, comes in and says "We're passing through downtown Houma if you want to get a photo." WHAT!?!? Four hours in and were in Houma? We went across the coast before going south. Oops.After two days of travel, and one day of searching, we finally found some oil. It was in the form of red globs that forms when oil dispersant gets in contact with the oil. But not before making a cool sunset picture... and a photo of a crazy glow in the wake of the boat. The guys said it's from a chemical released by jellyfish and that it's usually green. I'd never seen anything like it.
And here's Todd looking over the water as they finally find oil late Tuesday night. They spent all day searching (because they took orders from BP) and finally found a little oil. You'd think they had just caught the biggest shrimp ever they were so excited.
The next day, the cleanup process began. It was messy. They deployed the orange booms to help corral the oil, then put out white oil-absorbent pad things to soak it up.
On Monday, I flew with Sen. David Vitter and Gov. Bobby Jindal to look at what Grand Island is doing to help stop the oil from coming ashore. 30 percent of the nation's oil come through Port Fourchon, so it's pretty darn important to keep this area protected.
I'm sure I'll be covering a lot more with this oil spill in the coming weeks/months... years? But I just wanted to show what I've been doing the past two weeks.
