Grand Isle

CNN reported this AM tarballs on the beach

Sand Dollar is blocked off and National Guard stationed there

Good luck with that. As the oil spreads further inland and booms are placed it wont be accessible.

Boaters are not allowed within 300 yds of a boom

Mud--

Does that mean that the Sand Dollar is closed? Our camp is at Pirate's Cove. I'm heading to GI in two weeks for about 10 days of fishing.

Should we cancel?

Was on Grand Isle beach all day on Saturday working with BTNEP and there are were no signs of oil anywhere on Grand Isle. Fourchon beach and western end of Elmers, yes, but nothing new as of Saturday in Grand Isle.

Pic from this weekend (sorry not sure how to resize). Brown sea foam or oil?



Edited by Admin for picture size.

Sand Dollar Marina is NOT blocked off to anyone! We launched there yesterday, bought bait, ice and fuel there yesterday. There are people fishing off the docks, the bar is open, etc. It is far from business as usual, but it is open. There is a severe lack of recreational boats at the marina, and all the sportfishers are gone, but there is an abundance of Coast Guard, Sheriff, Police, and Wildlife Agent boats in and out of Sand Dollar all day long. I have never seen so much fuzz on the Island. On the other hand, Nautical Pointe (the newer marina right next to Sand Dollar) is blocked off by the National Guard, for the BP operation. You can't get on that property without a badge issued by the Response Group, which is set up in the Tarpon Rodeo Pavillion.

Also, I have never seen LDWF agents not even remotely concerned over checking people's catch before this weekend. We came in from offshore followed by the largest LDWF offshore boat that I have ever seen and they parked in the slip directly next to us, and I thought we were about to get a full vessel search. But, they just said how y'all doin, fueled up and left out like we weren't even there unloading fish. I was shocked. I think they are just happy to see recreational fisherman down on the coast spending money.

As for the water south of Grand Isle, it is perfectly normal. We fished up to 3 miles south of Grand Isle, and we saw nothing but beautiful green water.

Late in the day we decided to venture a bit east, and we found affected areas. At first I thought we hit a patch of muddy river water, but when we stopped and it was this eery redish color that I have never before seen, and we realized that it had to have been dispersed oil under the surface. I put my hands in it, and the surface water is completely clean, but it was a very strange color.

I've got five nights booked at a camp on GI starting June 1..we had planned to fish inshore and offshore. I can't get a hold of the company to find out what's going on...does anyone have any clue as to whether or not they think fishing will re-open anytime soon? I'm hopeful that this newest trick will allow them to stop most of the oil and that they can gain ground on clean-up efforts.

Yeah it's hard to understnad where the plumes are...from the looks of the most recent maps that track the slicks, it looks like the west side of the river is pretty clean...but I haven't heard the first hand accounts of someone who has taken a boat 30 or 40 miles offshore in the area. I know that the river is way up right now (near floodstage) and that's gotta be helping to keep the floating stuff out of the Grand Isle area...I just hate to cancel and take more money out of people's pockets until I absolutely need to.

You are correct! Mostly everyone in the scientific community thinks we are in this for the long haul. As more oil washes ashore people will begin to grasp what kind of situation we are dealing with here.