BP station on the beach, Gulfport, Mississippi.
Last weekend we drove out to Mississippi’s coast with the kids to play on the beach. Yes, I’m aware there was a big oil rig that blew up, sank in the gulf, and has been gushing oil all over the southern shore of the United States for 2+ months severely damaging the ecosystem and economy. But I’m starting to feel that if I folded up in a ball of depression every time something happened to drama magnet Louisiana I’d have been in the loony bin ages ago.
Anyway, I grew up in Cancer Alley, and as sad as it sounds, I’m used to foul smells in the air, explosions that shake the windows in the house, unidentifiable bits and pieces mysteriously appearing in the backyard and the water, and signs around town telling you where it isn’t safe to tread at the moment.
So we drove to the beach and threw out our towels and spf 666. It was a sunny Sunday, the weekend before the Fourth of July, and there were like six people on the beach – and NO ONE in the water. I looked around for danger postings but there weren’t any, and I’d checked the news before I left (both on TV and online) and I couldn’t find anything saying “stay off the beaches” or “beaches closed”. So I figured, how bad could it be?
Ok, I don’t know what oil tar balls look like, but I definitely stepped on some kinda gummy black globs, and this was two days before the big headlines came out screaming “Oil Reaches MS Beaches“. But I even ignored the goo. Touching oil can’t kill you, and I didn’t plan on eating the crap. I just wanted to lay on the damn beach with my kids. But the moment my 2 year old saw water she wanted IN. So we walked up to it, and it was repulsive. Whatever was floating in the water… it did not look healthy. It was kind of foamy in spots, and there were sharp pieces of what looked like fractured bone shards (crushed shells?) scattered all over. There were small decomposing fish and birds, and all kinds of debris, mostly unidentifiable to me. Some even looked human made. For all I know, Mississippi beaches look like this normally. I’m hardly a beach bunny, and usually avoid the sun and sand thing. But the refuse even made my alarm bells go off, and I wanted to get my babies away before they turned into the mutant spawn from Geek Love.
It was like some abandoned apocalyptic beach in a horror movie. Screw the red flag. They should’ve had the fucking jolly roger flying on that beach.
We didn’t stay but maybe 10 minutes, and I took a few photos. It was too hard trying to keep the kids away from the water, and my 13 month old son puts everything in his mouth so I was afraid he’d eat a petrol patty. I never did get shots of the worst stuff because I was scared to let go of the kids’ hands.
This was one of the cleaner sections of the beach.
I put his pacifier in so he wouldn’t be tempted to eat any toxic treats on the beach. Quite apropos that he wore his “Skull Crew” shirt that day.
Oil barriers floated on the water nearby.
And there was some strange, enormous wreckage on the beach that had no sign nearby declaring what the hell it might be or if you should stay away from it. I kept the kids in the car for this excursion and sent Q out with the Nikon for these shots… Anyone know what the hell that is?
Happy Fourth of July.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Gulfport beaches aren’t the greatest ones along the coastline…especially if you were anywere near the port…ick ick ick…your best bet is to go to Waveland/Bay St. Louis. I used to bring my kids to the Waveland beaches when they were babies because they were always so clean, not many people, and shallow enough that I wasn’t scrambling around frantically worrying about them the whole time…I’d stick my beach chair in the water and they’d play away. The only reason I’d ever go to the beaches in G’pt was to get sun, NOT to get in the water…and I lived there! :) Hope you give it another try…
See, this is insider info I NEED. It didn’t even occur to me that some beaches might be shallower/cleaner than others (I’m such a newbie!). I will definitely try again now, starting with Waveland. Thanks!
That rusty boat you photographed looks like a float for a dredge pipeline. They periodically have to dredge the beach sand from out in the Gulf back onto the beach. A dredge ship will sit a few hundred yards offshore and pump material through a long flexible pipe back to shore. The pipe is held up using a series of these floats. I’m not 100% sure, but that’s what it appears to be to me.
And, SPF 666–clever!
Peace,
Tim
Interesting. I thought it looked like a big gas tank. I figured if it was a hunk of Deepwater Horizon we’d have heard about it. But nonetheless, if a dredging ship did drop off one of its floaties, then wtf is that still doing on the beach? Why don’t they pick that rusty shit up?! ;)
check out the beach in ocean springs and the walter anderson museum.
just up the road and pretty mellow.
Will do. Don’t think I’ve ever gone down that far.
Mississippi coast beaches are pretty gross on a good day… public health does daily (weekly?) water tests because the chemicals washing down the Mississippi River show up along the coast, making the water dangerous for swimming. That was all before the spill.
Gotta get past Mobile Bay before things get nice, shore-wise.
Still, what you describe is way nasty.
And your boy is way adorable.
Yeah, and the last thing I want to do is swim in the MS River. Blech!
Thanks! He’s a little demon spawn ;)
well sistah…guess the bsl/wland beaches are off limits now…tar shit all over…sorry you didn’t get an opportunity to laze about on them…maybe your children’s grandchildren will get the chance…sigh… :(