07/30/2012 - Bayou La Batre Puts BP to Shame

I drove to Dauphin Island for a sunrise launch but the winds were blowing so neither the north or south side was protected from the wind. Rather than paddle in 1-2 foot waves and get wet, the Nature Gods led me over to the sheltered waters of Bayou La Batre. Holy Mackerel - Bayou La Batre is the worst place in Mobile County that I have ever paddled and the trash is thicker every time I paddle there. Here are photos from today's reality check.

Header image - shoreline trash in your Seafood Capital of Alabama. Enjoy eating your Petroleum glazed seafood. What other chemicals are in your seafood that you don't know about?

Bayou La Trash (Seafood Capital of Alabama) puts BP to shame when it comes to caring for the environment. At least BP is paying someone to remove their pollution. Bayou La Batre ignores their pollution. Enjoy your Alabama Seafood that may have spawned around the polluted waters of Bayou La Batre.

The petroleum fumes were so dense today it made me nauseous. Seriously, I felt the need to throw up but couldn't. I had to turn around and get out of there cutting the paddle short.

Even though there was a petroleum sheen visible at the boat ramp before I launched, it was a thicker petroleum sheen 3-4 miles upstream that caused me to turn around.

This photo says it all - the shoreline of Bayou La Batre is full of CRAP, most of it PLASTIC.

This being a working bayou with plenty of ship building activity in progress, some of the crap rusting in containers along the shoreline is poisonous.

his being a working bayou with plenty of ship building activity in progress, some of the crap rusting in containers along the shoreline is poisonous.

Leftover BP oil boom pom-poms still adorn the shoreline in Bayou La Batre. The boom which used to be the solution to the oil pollution, is now just the pollution.

Crabs on rotting cardboard.

A sunken boat's innards are free to float away.

Oil boom to catch escaping oil from the sunken boat was installed across the entire berthing area but the boom had a big gap under the dock allowing oil to go around the boom. Duh...

The shoreline trash of Bayou La Batre which seemingly never gets removed, gets denser and denser. You have to see it in person to believe it. 

Instead of Bayou La Batre being a tourist destination for vacationers who want to rent kayaks, it is a garbage and petroleum dump in which no kayak outfitter would associate themselves with.

The further upstream you go, the shoreline load of trash does decrease but shoreline trash was still easy to find 4 miles upstream.

The further upstream you go, the shoreline load of trash does decrease but shoreline trash was still easy to find 4 miles upstream.

Most of the shoreline trash in Bayou La Batre is visible because it floats and can be seen. 

What we should be worried about is what is beneath the water because some garbage sinks. Boat operators stand a good chance at getting rope tangled up in their props if they go near the shoreline.

Trash piled on the docks here included loose plastic bottles. There is always a sheen on the surface of the water in this area.

I saw six different petroleum sheens today and one was so large I called the National Response Center who in turn calls the nearest Coast Guard Hazmat Response Center who in turn calls me. I told the Coast Guard where the spill was. I tracked down the source of the petroleum to a boat that was pumping out fluids from several holes in the hull - one was probably bilge waste. Whether the Coast Guard responded or not I don't know. The Coast Guard doesn't do much about rainbow sheens. They usually let the sun evaporate the spill. The criminal releasing the petroleum into the water should have been issued a big fine for polluting the environment. Authorities go to great length to contain petroleum spills on the interstates after wrecks, so why don't authorities go to great lengths to contain petroleum spills in the water?

Bayou La Batre is a public waterway and almost every time I have kayaked in it I've ended up having to paddle through petroleum and that indicates a serious underlying problem of watershed mismanagement or lack of any watershed management. If petroleum is so easy to find on the water in Bayou La Batre, why isn't ADEM fining the City of Bayou La Batre for violations of the Clean Water Act? Mobile County values are decaying at an alarming rate. Mobile County watershed and estuary managers are asleep at the desk. It is time for them to get out in a kayak and get a whiff of petroleum to wake their ass up so they can see the serious pollution in Bayou La Trash.