We turned to the southwest, heading toward the reported oil sighting south of Grand Isle, LA. Almost immediately we began seeing, what appeared to be, large areas of oil just below the surface along with streaks of multicolored "sheen" on the surface. The smell of petroleum was thick in the air. We flew southwest, to approximately 40 miles south of Grand Isle and followed the "plumes" and "sheen" north all the way in to Grand Terre Island and Grand Isle. The "sheen" appeared to be flowing into Barataria Bay through Four Bayou Pass and Grand Isle Pass. We saw only a few birds, one large, dead Red Fish and only three dolphins during the entire fly over.
Dolphins in water off Grand Isle, LA, March 18-19, 2011 Jerry Moran / Stuart Smith oilspillaction.com
Bonny Schumaker with the group Of Wings of Care pointed out there were still potential harmful effects from the brown substance in the water even if it is not pure oil. Schumaker watched a pod of dolphins trying to keep one apparently mortally ill dolphin afloat in the the Gulf. This is what she told WWL radio in New Orleans;
"There were dolphins and turtles and a large bull redfish lying dead on its back...They worked for a full 20 minutes trying to push this other one up, and eventually I guess they gave up.
Coast Guard officials say they will continue to investigate the source of the leaking oil and complete tests results of water sampes taken from the giant plumes observed last weekend. As the memorial anniversary of the BP blowout approaches, this is one memory coastal residents here don't want to live through again.
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