"SAVE OUR GULF" seaweed protest at Pass-A-Grille Beach Florida

BP protest sign made of seaweed on Pass-A-Grille Beach Florida

I was actually in the middle of photographing a wedding when I first noticed a raised mound of sand to my right with some words spelled out on it.  The bride and groom later walked past it allowing me to pause quickly (hence not getting the framing perfect) to make this photograph and finally read what it said:  

SAVE OUR GULF

The beaches of west-central Florida remain untainted by the BP oil spill due to I believe the direction of the currents in the Gulf.  Yet as I often have contact with beach side businesses like hotels and rental agencies via my beach wedding photography jobs, I have heard that despite our oil-free beaches here, business is down, especially for the hotels.  Thus, I can only imagine the hardships businesses that are actually on oil covered beaches must be experiencing right now.  A large portion of my photography livelihood is made on Pinellas County's beautiful sandy beaches.  If oil ever does make its way on shore here, myself, and all other beach photographers could take a hit.  Although I would be more worried about my local bird friends (as I wrote about here) and sea creature friends, as I can just shift my business more inland.  

My gut feeling is that BP does not want to permanently cap the well.  That it has and is still holding out hope to be able to cap it and still pump all the oil out of it and sell it despite the PR and stock price nightmare of the past 82 days.

Are there any protests to the BP oil spill on your local beaches or in your neighborhoods?  If so, please link to them in the comments.

Well wishes for all oil coated brown pelicans

BP did what?? For 50+ days??

I did not know that brown pelicans were just recently an endangered species.  Having grown up in Florida and seen these large birds all over the place in plentiful numbers, I just never imagined they could disappear forever.  Not until I read Scott Bourne's recent post about brown pelicans, the BP oil spill and the importance of photography did I know that.  

Being a person who is committed to not causing harm to any animal for any reason, it causes me great pain to see the oil covered birds, turtles, hermit crabs and all other creatures in the effected Gulf of Mexico coastal areas.  The oil spill is truly a crime against Nature.  

If only I could scratch my own back so well as this brown pelican canSo whenever I see a brown pelican now I will look upon it with a new respect and think, as Scott wrote, this could be the last photograph ever taken of this species.  Take care my friends.