Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 28

Winter fun digging. If you did this today, there would be a line of oil beneath the top layer.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 25

More of the natural black/brown blobs of seaweed that washes ashore seasonally along the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 24

To be fair, there are always times when the white sands of Pensacola Beach are littered with the weeds of the sea, which is what those dark brown blobs are at the edge of our volleyball court. This year that seaweed came with oil.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 23

I won't let my kids do this for years with all the oil that has been found in the sand.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 22

The Gulf waters closest to Mobile Bay aren't the bluest at the shoreline due to the tannins that leach out of the organic matter in the estuaries. If you look close enough at the top of the photo, you can see some natural gas production rigs.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 21

A shrimp boat in the Gulf of Mexico just off Dauphin Island in August of last year. You don't see this right now since fishing in this area is currently closed. 

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 20

This is Bubba, a blue crab we caught while vacationing on Dauphin Island, AL last August. We let him go along with the hermit crabs you see below him. Who knows if Bubba and his progeny will survive in good enough numbers after the oil has fouled the shores of this barrier island. The oil isn't flowing now, and for that I am grateful to the engineers who figured out how to place this current cap.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 18

Unsullied shores, or when the coast was clear.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 17

At the Gazebo was the place to meet when I was in high school and college. Hurricanes took it out. Jimmy Buffet has built his own version, Landshark Landing. That's me, who didn't catch the frisbee my flight student boyfriend threw to me. I'm pretty sure he tossed it badly just to see me run.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 15

The beach was wonderful even in Fall and Winter. This is November in 2006.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 9

I would be lying if I didn't say that the beach wasn't a great place to meet guys. This would be April, 1989.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 8

At 17 and even earlier, I knew the beauty of the beach where my parents put their roots. Over the years, human use and hurricanes have done their damage. None will compare to the on coming storm of oil.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 7

Near Navarre Beach, to the east of Pensacola Beach, 1978, which is before the Ixtoc spill that was the largest oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico. My mother shows her father the sand grains that are so white, although the photo hasn't kept its true colors over time.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 6

From 1989--clean sand and the turquoise and dark blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico at Pensacola Beach. Longtime residents will understand when I say that this was taken where the Gazebo used to be. Jimmy Buffet's Land Shark Landing sits in about the same spot.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 5

For a few years, my family chartered a fishing vessel for all day trips to catch whatever the Gulf would allow. This year, which would have been the late 90s, we caught snapper, grouper, and too many amberjack to count.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 4

My sister, one of my aunts, and I on Pensacola Beach, FL, June 1987.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 3

May 2004. This is my father and my first daughter. This was a calm day in the Gulf of Mexico. We went fishing this year and caught our limit of red snapper, a few grouper, and one cobia. This fish fed our family group of 14. What we didn't use we gave to a local restaurant, Aegean Breeze, for them to use for their customers.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 2

My paternal grandfather and my elder sister around 1971 near NAS Pensacola.

Gulf of Mexico Series: Sarabeth 1

I lived in Pensacola, FL for 18 years, with a semi-pause for college just three hours down the road. Even then, our respite from the college life was the beach that bordered the Gulf of Mexico. For the next 14 years, I lived other places, but no where did my inside self find the same peace that I find in an instant when next to these waters. The past three years, my family and I have called New Orleans home. We, the residents of the Gulf, and anyone who makes their living from the sea are confronted with an oil spill that has run mostly unchecked for two months. By all accounts we have another month and a half before any real relief.

Carol asked, and I agreed to share my photos of the Gulf of Mexico and its beaches and communities. I'll do before and after shots. This one is of the fishing pier on Pensacola Beach, Florida as it stood in 1970. The photo is faded, but you can see the clear water at the shore and the unlittered beach.