Nearly 2, 000 feet in the air, above where the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the approaching storm is in full view; millions of gallons of wind-swept crude oil, in streaks that arc not black but orange, red and brown. It’s easier to grasp the severity of the cr unraveling in the Gulf of Mexico when you have an airborne perspective of the oil that is barreling toward the shore. A group of environmentalists, reporters and bayou defenders went up on a small plane for a tour of the coast. "I’ll show you the Cajun Bahamas, "the pilot, Lyle Panepinto, said. Minutes later, he pushed the plane from 1, 100 feet to 2, 000 feet above the water, out toward the Chandeleur Islands, between Louisiana and Mississippi. Earlier this week, scientists collected samples of oil from the islands. "It might be no more, when this is over with, " Panepinto said of the islands, home to several private fishing camps. A bird’s-eye view of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reveals
[A] how serious the contamination is. [B] what sea creatures are suffering from.
[C] where the oil spill is located exactly. [D] why such a cr has happened there.

At one point, the plane passed over a tiny island filled with pelicans. Louisiana’s state bird. Booms, which are meant to help block off, retain and skim off the oil, have been placed around the island. But they are, it seems, of little use. In various sections, they have been pushed by wind and water onto the shoreline. Experts say many types of booms only work in calm weather conditions. The past few days have been marked with fierce winds and rain.

Booms arc the most common containment method being used so far. But Barry Kohl, an adjunct professor of earth and environmental sciences at Tulane University, in New Orleans, says that even in the best weather conditions, skimming will remove only between 10% and 15% of the oil from the water’s suce. Another strategy that officials are trying: spraying dispersants — chemicals used to break up the oil — onto the water’s suce, or injecting it thousands of feet below water. The dispersants cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the sea. But experts warn that dispersants will also kill the plankton on which shrimp and fish depend for food. So far, the authorities haven’t clarified what chemical dispersants are being used. "We don’t know what happens to the oil once it’s dispersed, "Kohl says.

"You see the stuff to the left" Panepinto asked, pointing to the long red and orange, sometimes brown, streaks. "That there is the oil. "The crude, which comes out of the wells black, has essentially emulsified, partly from having been exposed to the sunlight for so much time. By the time it reaches the shore, probably in the next day or so, it will likely be brown, like chocolate. Each day, the streaks will become less and less of a sheen, and more of a gummy substance. From the plane, you could see that it was approaching a massive school of flounder. "It’s like they’re swimming toward death, " Panepinto said. On the other side of what looked like a massive contagion were the shrimpers, lowering a boom onto the water. "What they’re doing is ’hopeless’ , " Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, says of the shrimpers.

Minutes later, the plane was flying over the man-made Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, created nearly half a century ago partly to give large shipping vessels another route to travel between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans. Much of the water that flooded New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina came from MRGO. Much of the nearby marsh was destroyed — and with it, one of the last lines of defense for New Orleans against the Gulf’s water. If and when the oil hits land, it may kill much of the remaining vegetation that holds the soil together — one more reason New Orleans and folks on dry land are concerned about the spill’s effects.

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