Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach (click to see all 22 photos)

Deepwater Horizon exploded about 11 p.m. on April 20 and later sank. Visit our special report page for the latest reports on the gulf oil disaster.

The tide came in Tuesday night, under a moon almost full, and when the sun came up and the water retreated there it was: a broken band of oil about 5 feet wide and 8 miles long.

It looked like tobacco spit and smelled foreign, and it pooled in yesterday's footprints as far as you could see. State officials called it the worst show of crude on shore from the gusher 120 miles away. READ THE STORY: Oil blankets Pensacola Beach.

Times photos by Edmund Fountain

Kevin Reed, 36, of Pensacola breaks down and weeps upon seeing the oil-defiled shores of Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010. Reed's father taught him to swim in these waters, and Reed just taught his five year old son to swim here. "This will never be the same," he says. "I'd like to take the CEO of BP and jam his face in that pile on the beach."

Kenny Wood, 44, of Pace, Fla., cleans oil from Pensacola Beach on June 24. He isn't part of a BP work crew and isn't getting paid anything to be there. "Eventually I might get with one of them crews," he says. Asked what drove him to come pick up tar balls he responed "This is our beach, man."

Kenny Wood, 44, of Pace, Fla., cleans oil from Pensacola Beach on June 24. He isn't part of a BP work crew and isn't getting paid anything to be there. "Eventually I might get with one of them crews," he says. Asked what drove him to come pick up tar balls he responed "This is our beach, man."

L-R: Escambia County Commission Chair Grover Robinson watches as USF Coastal Resesarch Lab Geologist Rip Kirby illuminates Pensacola Beach with a UV lamp exposing oil tainted sand well away from the shoreline. The tainted sand glows bright orange under the light, but is invisible to the naked eye.

USF Coastal Reasearch Lab geologist Rip Kirby illuminates Pensacola Beach with a UV light on June 24. Oil specks glow orange in the sand on this beach that had been cleaned. Sifters used by cleanup crews allow contaminated sand to fall back to the beach, even though contamination is not visible to the unaided eye.

USF Coastal Reasearch Lab geologist Rip Kirby illuminates his foot and Pensacola Beach with a UV light on June 24. Oil specks glow orange in the sand on this beach that had been cleaned. Sifters used by cleanup crews allow contaminated sand to fall back to the beach, even though contamination is not visible to the unaided eye.

A trench dug by a group of USF geologists shows a continuous layer of oil approximately six inches beneath the surface of Pensacola Beach near Gulf Islands National Seashore on June 24.

University of South Florida coastal geology graduate student Katie Brutsche, 25, digs a trench on Pensacola Beach exposing a vein of oil buried under approximately six inches of sand on June 24. According to a group of USF geologists, the layer of oil was buried by an overnight tide Wednesday night.

A cleanup crew sifts sand on Pensacola Beach, trying to eradicate as many tar balls as possible on June 24. The dark colored sand is grains stained by the oil that were small enough to pass through the sieves. USF geologists dug trenches along the beach in multiple locations and discovered a nearly continuous vein of oil buried in approximately 4-6 inches of sand.

A trench dug by a group of USF geologists shows a continuous layer of oil approximately six inches beneath the surface of Pensacola Beach near Gulf Islands National Seashore on June 24.

Workers clean up oil that came ashore on Pensacola Beach overnight on June 23 as spectators watch. The waters on the beach are closed to the public and tar balls are still visible in the surf.

Oil mars Pensacola Beach on June 23.

Footprints are left on Pensacola Beach on June 23. Signs on trash cans at at the beach ask that visitors leave only footprints when they depart. Overnight, tides left the beaches strewn with tar balls, oil mousse, and sludge from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Onlookers stare at a huge mass of oil that came ashore on Pensacola Beach on June 23. The water is closed to the public.

L-R: Sisters Courtney King, 8, and Kaylee King, 5, of Gulf Breeze investigate oil along Pensacola Beach on June 23. The pair were out with their parents, who visit the beach often. "We've been out here several times, but this is a shock," said their father Todd King. "This is the worst it has been."

Oil pools on Pensacola Beach after being stepped in by David Crocco, 42, of Los Angeles. Crocco intentionally stepped into the oil as part of a film being produced by Truth-Action Productions.

David Crocco, 42, of Los Angeles washes oil from his feet on Pensacola Beach after stepping in a pool of it on June 23.

Oil washed ashore overnight in Pensacola Beach on June 23, defiling the white sands for which the town is famous. The water is closed to the public.

Cleanup crews remove oil that washed ashore at Pensacola Beach on June 23. The waters are closed to the public, but that did not stop curiousity seekers from coming to the beach to see the mess.

Oil mars the white sands of Pensacola Beach on June 23. The water is now closed to the public.

Onlookers stare at oil that washed ashore on Pensacola Beach on June 23. The waters are now closed to the public. Tar balls can be seen in the surf.

Children walk amidst oil debris on Pensacola Beach on June 23. Oil came ashore on the beach overnight, and the waters are now closed to the public.

Comments

[Shane]

Absolutely heartbreaking. I'm sure these pictures don't do justice to the nightmare local residents are experiencing. Thanks for posting

[q]

dirty, oily b*st*rds. I too would like to shove the ceo's face in that stuff.

[Tellus Sol]

Gawd, that's so disgusting and heart breaking. This could have been prevented if Paul Revere had been alive today to warn us ... again.

[john]

Come on AMERICA STAND UP FOR YOUR SELF AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, IT IS ALMOST TOO LATE......

[Tim]

www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

[Jim L]

But we won't stop driving our cars.

[howie]

You vote for Anti-Environmental Senators and Congress People all the time. Kharma. I don't cry for your beaches or people just the animals. Maybe this Fall you have learned a lesson and will vote for Pro-Green Candidates. If not R.I.P.

But I don't want one dime of my tax payer money going to any of the Gulf states for this because the people you voted for like Bush/Cheney helped to poison states I live in. Shame on you.

[Patrick Bureau]

come on. YES we won't stop driving our cars. That does not mean we should feel guilty for what's happening. If a company is going to drill that deep into the sea, and don't take the necessary precautions to avoid things like this.... THEY are responsible entirely, not people like you and me.

What we need is affordable electric cars.. because YES... we won't stop driving our cars. People want to move faster and faster from point A to point B all the time, since as long as we can remember with horses, then carts, then planes... etc.

[Elise]

BP has to pay and we have to change our lifestyles. No more oil. No more plastics. Recycle.

[graverubber]

If my drug dealers are going to go around shooting each other and innocent people in the process of getting their drug to me, it's not my fault that I'm creating a demand for their product.

[Scoot]

Howie. It was the environmentalist that got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of letting oil companies drill in 500 feet of water, they pushed them way deeper. So deep, that they cant do anything about it.

BP is still at fault for having more safety violations than all of the other oil companies combined. But blaming this on "Anti-environmental Senators and Congress People" is absurd.

[JoyfulC]

We could at least stop driving our cars quite so much -- remember the stuff from the 70s? Buy a smaller car. Carpool. Take public transit, walk or bike when possible. Plan fewer trips. Get your car tuned up to be the most fuel efficient it can be.

Also, lower thermostats in winter. Buy less stuff that comes in plastic packaging (or choose stuff with minimal packaging).

Of course we cannot stop driving our cars altogether, but there is a lot of wiggle room here for us to significantly reduce our reliance on petroleum.

Finally, petition the govt to put a huge tax on gasoline -- $5/gallon. This will strongly encourage people to limit their gas consumption, but at the same time, it will prevent petro companies from increasing their profits by increasing the cost per barrel of oil. The tax $$ should be funneled into energy alternatives.

Some might find that extreme, and it is -- but obviously without extreme measures, we aren't going to change, nor are the oil companies truly going to shift massive amounts of money and commitment into finding energy alternatives. It will take something extreme to overcome our inertia.

[Randy]

Are you ready to give up plastic and driving? Until you are, this is our future.

[Angry Floridian]

"It was the environmentalist that got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of letting oil companies drill in 500 feet of water, they pushed them way deeper. So deep, that they cant do anything about it. "

Yes, poor little helpless ExxonMobil and BP -- just totally powerless in the face of the all-powerful Greenpeace and their puppets who controlled the White House for 8 years and the House and the Senate for 6 during the Bush administration.

How can multi-billion dollar national companies with their hands on the every lever of government possibly do anything with the boot of the Sierra Club on their necks?

[bugs nixon]

Is it possible that you are all upset because you think of BP as a non-US corporation? Would you feel differently if it was Exxon or Amoco? I’m just asking.

Anyway, my point is - this sort of thing will happen again and again as long as you allow corporations to run your Government.

Capitalism needs a big rethink. Sorry, but it does.

[Jonathan]

Scoot, blaming environmentalists because we don't want drilling even closer to our shores is moronic. The same cost cutting, profit seeking behavior which BP is required by law to maximize for its shareholders would, and already has, lead to oil spills regardless of where the oil industry drills. Who would prefer that happen 500 feet from the coast instead? Idiot.

Environmentalists have been arguing for decades that we should not allow drilling in the ocean, period, and that we shouldn't be continuing to build car dependent cities which necessitate doing so in the first place. They were writing this in the 1970's. Nobody has listened.

[Terri Y]

Getting back to a simpler way of life would be a huge step to reversing the oil dependancy. But a simpler way of life is not possible as long as we have to pay yearly taxes on the homes we live in and all other taxes just keep going up and up.

[jocinja]

My father was from the Gulf and I go to Destin Fl almost every year for vacation. This is so devastating to watch...I don't think it will ever be the same there. I blame the Obama Administration for allowing BP to cut corners due to greed.
So sad...

[Rodrigo]

It's everybody's fault. We gotta stop fighting each other, that includes fighting against BP. Until we realize we do this to ourselves we won't be able to change it.

"All I'm saying is give peace a chance."
JL

[Tim]

Randy, the fact that you postulate that Greenpeace and the Sierra Club had run of the white house during the Bush administration tells me I'd have better luck arguing with a bowl of wax fruit.

Lest you forget that BP was drilling a prospect well... they went out and bought a lease for that tract of ocean. Nobody made them go out into 5000 feet of water to drill a well, they went out there of their accord. They then proceeded to cut every corner possible and now we get to reap the rewards of their hubris.

[Nykya]

This used to be one of the most beautiful beaches I've even visited. My better teenage memories took place in Pensacola. There are no words. No words.

[Sarah P]

Drill Baby! Drill!

[trying real hard]

I drive a small fuel efficient car (gets 32 miles to the gallon in the city), my recycle bin is bigger than my trash bin, have my thermostat set up during the summer and down during the winter and yes I'm still boycotting EXXON over the spill in Alaska! This has everything to do with big corporations not caring if they hurt people, animals or the environment as long as the investers are happy and they are making billions. I'm sick of hearing about how the government should stay out of it and let corporations alone because clearly they aren't going to take care of us if it means they have to settle for less money!

[Jessica]

A corporate empire has slowly taken over, this is what the free market gets us.

[Rick]

BP, Anadarko, Halliburton and Transco are all responsible. Yet BP are the only ones who are paying. I see what Obama meant when he said that American taxpayers wouldn't pay a cent.

Now that there is finally some oil on the sand let's all jump on the bandwagon and get a taste of BP's $20 billion dollars. Look, I got oil on my foot. Call an ambulance! I think I've got foot cancer. I keep having flash backs of oil soaked beaches as my landing craft came ashore so I'm claiming for PTSD. Then I trod in an oil patch and got my foot blown off.

Let's have more pictures cropped so that the oil fills the frame. More oil, less clean white sand in the picture. Make it look as bad and dramatic as possible. Also, get more crying grown men in the picture, forlorn children and get a man to mix up the sand so that it is a muddy brown color. Maximise the picture size so that the oil fills the pagewidth.

And where is the oil soaked bird? Oh, it flew into a wind turbine:

"Rare red kite found dead at wind farm near Dingwall"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/10413334.stm

A. Go fly a kite.
B. I can't, it flew into a wind turbine.

[Ezra]

Scoot,

Blaming oil spills on environmentalists is completely insane. Period. No environmentalist ever opposed 500 foot wells and supported 5000 foot wells. And of course 500 foot wells have also led to spills.

If you care for beaches it is time rethink knee-jerk opposition to environmentalists. Republicans have not done a damn thing to reduce dependence on oil or to regulate polluting industries.

[The Republican Party]

DRILL BABY DRILL.

[Seriously?]

"I blame the Obama Administration for allowing BP to cut corners due to greed".

You're too stupid to live.

[zen]

We should invade another country for oil, maybe we won't have to drill and contaminate our own shores then.

[Joe Bass]

Ya know what's truly sad, I just don't know where to be emotionally. I spent half my childhood out on Navarre beach, now I live in St Pete, and I am sure before its all over we will see the oil here too.

It's a tragedy, a horrible tragedy and it will decimate an already economically depressed Gulf coast. Possibly, probably it will decimate the entire nation.

People are angry, frustrated, and many are desperate. They are looking for someone to blame, someone to crucify for how bad everything has become. Along comes BP and a tragic horrible accident. Suddenly, people forget we were angry, frustrated, and desperate before this accident, people forget we were already doomed before the oil spill.

Maybe the oil spill speeds it up, maybe for some it slows it down. Maybe for some this is a blessing in disguise, maybe for those thousands out there who were already on their last leg can blame it all on BP. They can throw their hands in the air and be-cry oh poor me poor me my life is over because of BP.

Then of course the media jumps on the bandwagon, because everyone knows they no longer report news, they produce it and create it. And of course, the politicians jump on board because suddenly they are saved they have a scapegoat they can shift the blame to, to get it off of them.

Oh and once again the people just suck it up buy into it and its business as usual in Washington DC, more lies, more deceptions, more sweet back room deals. More rich people getting richer from the war on the middle class.

Have we even stopped to ask how did this happen? Have you even considered? Do you really think BP wanted this to happen? Most importantly did anyone have something to gain by this happening?

Sure are a ton of huge contracts involved here, that are being awarded privately by our government not in public open bid.

Hmmm sure did shift the focus of the nation off uproar over the healthcare reform.

Oh and let's not forget foreign oil that was having to drop their prices a lot before this happened.

Stir in ecological radicals that were very very vocal about doing whatever it took to keep us from drilling off Florida's coasts.

Anyway what I am saying is before you go looking to crucify BP, maybe you should look around. Maybe you should look at that pretty new SUV sitting in your driveway, or that thermostat set at 70 degrees. Maybe you should look around your home at those brand new 60 inch flat screen TV's and think hmm how much oil did that take to get here.

Maybe, just maybe America should look in the mirror and really see who is to blame for the way things have become.

[Mark]

Howie, let me be as plain and simple as I can be regarding your comment. "Go to Hell!"

[trashman]

Republicans have not done a damn thing to reduce dependence on oil or to regulate polluting industries.

We should invade another country for oil, maybe we won't have to drill and contaminate our own shores then.

Capitalism needs a big rethink. Sorry, but it does.

Maybe, just maybe America should look in the mirror and really see who is to blame for the way things have become.

These statements amaze me.

[Sally Blakemore]

It is a global economic, corporate coup. All of these political leaders are nothing but shills of more greed. They want the elders to die off, people who get cancer from these monsters have no recourse and the world is Cheney's bathroom because it seems he plays the biggest, ugliest hand in all of these Halliburton schemes. We need a new system. Democracy is dead.

[Doctor]

Never waste a good crisis, right?

This "disaster" is the culmination of bad energy policy imposed on the American people by the democrat party for over thirty years. It is the democrat party and their "green" movement that drove oil exploration into mile deep water.

[karie]

its just so sad to watch our world crash before our eyes...this just CANT BE THE END! we have to fight to save what's ours...these beaches are apart of what makes pensacola!

[julie]

Wake Up America!!!! You're govt has been taken over by the corporations. Both parties are dirty and have sold out to corporate interests--it's called FASCISM!! Get off the controlled media and learn what's really going on! Listen to infowars.com and whatreallyhappened.com radio shows on gcn.com. And if you want to know what's really going on w/the economy and how this financial collapse is by design, listen to Bob Chapman of theinternationalforecaster.com Don't let them use the divide and conquer strategy on us-- it's time to come together and get rid of this criminal govt and all the criminal corporations!!

[TxGirl]

Truly heartbreaking. I spent several summers in my teenage years going to Pensacola. Those were beaches were beautiful. (So different from the ones here in Texas.) We're doing a great job of mucking up our planet.

[Jim Deean]

Wow thats downright scary

Lou
www.web-anonymity.mx.tc

[ww]

The so-called US government - Barry Soetoro, Uncle Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel & Co. could care less. They're more interested in seeing if they can manage start yet another war.

[Leonard Heit]

THIS IS SO SICKENING AND THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR IT !!!!!!! DAMN YOU BP !!!!!!!!!!!

[Enos]

Odd that after voting for so many politicians that do nothing more than reward large corporations that care nothing about the good of humanity, strive for deregulation of businesses and their goings-on, and talk negatively about environmental causes, that so many people are surprised that events like this happen.
Those who support these radical right-wing ideologies should be ashamed at what their ignorance has led to and exposed so many innocent creatures (and fellow human beings) to.

[Fred]

The oil spill and many of the comments here confirm this observation, made over 60 years ago:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein

[jay]

this was a false flag attack. this came from bildeberg. they're interfering with our lives. they've hijacked america, they have to be stopped.

[robo]

This is a small sample of what life in Teabagistan will look like. Unregulated greed, environmental devastation, blame-casting, dead animals, unusable beaches, big cars, lots of very poor people, a few very rich people. Enjoy it, red states.

[s]

I blame...
It's _______'s fault...

Go back and count how many times these phrases appear in previous comments.
Yes, pointing fingers will solve everything.

[Rism]

This link is proof someone knew something was going to happen to that oil rig.

Right now, ask yourself.
haliburton, monsanto, BP, boeing, locheedmartin, goldman sachs, federal(priavate) reserve, enron, and on, and on. Ask, why are all these private corporations in the very business of profiting off either wars, outdated fuel sources, government policy, or altering the DNA of our food supply.

And now its all finally hitting home as we see the blood of mother earth spill upon our shores. To show us in sheer horror what we allowed to happen.

[Rism]

link:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0602/month-oil-spill-goldman-sachs-sold-250-million-bp-stock/

[Gabe]

It's as if a majority of the comments here (and in other places) assume that BP wanted this to happen. The fact is that the rig this came from had passed its previous inspections, and this was simply an accident. If they didn't purchase the most expensive widgets on their rig to help reduce their bottom line, that isn't being evil; it's actually what their stakeholders demand of them.

What is inexcusable is the mismanagement of the crisis after it occurred - as early as 4 days after the start of the problem the US Government turned down offers for help from folks who had the equipment and knowledge on how to do it, citing the Jones Act. Recently the Coast Guard blocked ships off of Louisiana because of life rafts - and the Federal Government is also blocking efforts to protect beaches by building berms. In every effort BP and others have made to effectively resolve this issue, the Federal Government has made every possible effort to make it harder to fix - effectively increasing the scope of the damage.

If you want to blame someone, go ahead and blame BP - but don't forget that the US Constitution sets aside the responsibility to defend our Union / provide for the common welfare to the President; not BP.

[Laughing]

Haha! Stupid Fing Bush voters got just the beach they deserve, karma's a B isnt it?

You want deregulation of all industries?
Drill baby drill?

Hahaha! Enjoy the garbage you've made.

[Ralph B]

Bunch of dopes. Yeah, if people weren't driving cars, this wouldn't be a problem. Why? Because most people couldn't GET to the beaches, so who would care about the oil there.

And as for the Bush bashers, tell me, what exactly is Obama doing about this? If there was a Republican in the Oval Office, people would be popping blood vessels in their brains right now over the apparent lack of interest and the obvious lack of federal involvement to get this problem fixed.