The once productive, deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico were now smothering under an unnatural blanket of black and red streaks that stretched on for more than 87 miles. That is wider than the state of Florida.
Pilot John Wathen admitted that he was deeply effected by the “red mass of floating goo” that he saw. He said, “For the first time in my environmental career, I find myself using the word hopeless.”
During the course of his flight, Wathen counted more than 30 boats circling uselessly around the massive oil slick.
“We can’t stop this.” He said, “There’s no way to prevent this from hitting our shoreline.”
The images that reached the horizon were all the same. “The Gulf appears to be bleeding,” Wathen said. “No one knows if the Gulf will ever heal from this.”
With some estimates placing the amount of bleeding oil at 50 million gallons and growing, the Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil spill has already changed life on earth for thousands of people in the fishing industry. What it has done to the fish, and the marine life that once fed on them is more than another page for our history books; it is rewriting our future.
