On Wednesday morning I commented how incredibly foggy it was outside. I live about three-quarters of a mile away from the bay and a foggy shroud had crawled all the way to the house.
That morning is the very same that a large container ship smacked into the base of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge.
Now, three days later, Bay Area residents and the rest of the world are beginning to see the stick aftermath. 58,000 of 'bunkering' oil has spread across the bay fouling miles of shoreline.
This is heartbreaking.
Bird and sea life is severely impacted. Our beaches are coated with oil.
The bay significantly contaminated.
This morning during a press conference about the spill, officials announced that 16+ beaches are now closed. These beaches span all reaches of the bay.
In addition, KRON4 specifically showed footage from Pt. Isabel, which is a large park with expansive coastline not far from where I live. It is the same park that houses the country's most beautiful dog park and is one of my favorite short run routes.
The media reports are grim. Statistics for recovered sea birds show that even those who are helped don't tend to live very long after release. Clearly, is is impossible to recover all of the escaped oil. Much of it will literally leaves its mark on the beautiful shoreline, that we all love so much, for a long time to come.
It seems inevitable that we won't be able to enjoy surfing or swimming in the bay for quite some time...but sea lions, sea birds, aquatic and plant life can't simply move themselves to a swimming pool or live in a park inland.
This whole mess is so sad.
It is not Exxon Valdez, but it might as well be.
