I checked the headlines Saturday morning shortly after waking up; it feels like an obligation from a big picture standpoint and a terrible idea on a personal level. There it was, an oil spill off the coast of Southern California that’d already killed some of the “things” that made me want to get out of bed in the first place. Eying the oil and natural gas platforms in the area, I’d always wondered when the next disaster was going to take place, not if. It’s not as though one needs a third eye to foretell situations where people in charge of keeping shareholders happy probably won’t dip into corporate profits often enough to meticulously maintain their operation’s aging infrastructure. Imagine how trashed this place would be without any government oversight. That’s certainly the dream of some…no accountability, just profits as far as the eye can see, morality be damned.
A common dolphin with her calf in Orange County waters. I hope they and the rest of their pod know how to evade the oil slick.
And hopefully this humpback whale and her calf are coming up for breaths far from the coordinates of this sighting.
A threatened Western snowy plover foraging on an Orange County beach. How long till the crustaceans are safe to eat again?
California sea lions sunning themselves in the shadow of an offshore oil and gas platform in San Pedro Bay. Wildlife makes pretty good use of our junk at times.
A red-footed booby on an offshore platform in San Pedro Bay.
Basking sharks swimming near offshore platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel.
A peek at what our nearshore kelp forests look like. They’re having a tough enough time without dumping the oil directly on them. Swimming in them is one of my greatest joys—a bit of good news is I spotted my first critically endangered giant sea bass in Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve this past weekend. I wish it went without saying that pollution doesn’t respect park boundaries, county, state and national lines.
A fluking humpback whale in Orange County.
