Remembering trip to the Gulf Coast

My one and only spring break trip occurred in 1992, my senior year in college. Six buddies – all burly, loud, hard-drinking, working-class students at a state university – pooled a few bucks and borrowed a rundown van. Like many of our fellow Midwesterners, we pointed the hood south. Unlike many of our fellow students, we went … wildlife watching. No kidding. Two guys were buds from the wildlife ecology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and along with this science-journalism major, we convinced three others to tent-camp along the Gulf of Mexico. For guys who’d grown up hunting and trapping in western Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota, it was an opportunity to view a whole different world of alligators, nutria, and saltwater marshland birds of the Louisiana and Texas Coast. OK, there was a hazy 24 hours in the Big Easy, but overall, our focus was camping and wildlife watching … with some campfire imbibing. It was a significantly more productive, and cheaper, than spring break in Mexico or Daytona.
Like many Minnesotans in the midst of prime fishing and kid baseball seasons, I find it easy to ignore what’s transpiring in the Gulf of Mexico. But I see the names of our incredible destinations from almost two decades ago, places like Grand Isle, La., and Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, and can’t imagine the long-term effects of the oil spill on the region and its wildlife.
The hyperbole from both political extremes hasn’t helped the discussion. On the right, we have congressmen like Alaska’s Don Young declaring the spill no big deal. Nevermind that there’s an oil slick the size of Iowa, and growing, waiting for waterfowl and other shorebirds this fall. (Not to mention underwater marine life and shutting down a third of the Gulf Coast fishing industry.) On the left, we’re hearing a call to end all offshore oil drilling. I’m all for finding alternative energy sources for automobile fuel, but crude oil has lots of uses beyond gasoline. Unless the hardcore environmentalists would like us rendering whale blubber again, humanity will be using bubbling crude in some capacity for a long time.
The oil industry has been conducting deep-water drilling for decades, but one incident like this is one too many. No matter how unlikely the odds of it happening again given existing safety standards, the industry needs to take those standards to an even higher level. My gripe: How often do you hear some right-wing TV or radio blowhard bashing unnecessary “environmental regulations?” Um, you mean like laws that might require functional emergency valves on underwater oil pipelines? You just know some congressman with Big Oil in his backpocket called in favors and proclaimed that the feds could rely on “industry recommendations” for blowout system maintenance. Why does it take a disaster like this for everyone to agree (even industry) that existing safety protocols don’t cut the mustard? The whole thing stinks worse than that van at the end of our spring break trip.
Dennis Anderson at the Star Tribune wrote this past weekend on the potential effects of the Gulf oil spill on waterfowl management this fall. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and flyway council completely baffle me every year on season frameworks. Doesn’t matter what water or weather conditions greet the Duck Factory, we always have a liberal season. Too much emphasis on mallards and too much influence from the Southern half of the flyway. No, many of these birds won’t use areas affected by the oil, but the nation’s duck managers had better consider the wintering grounds thoroughly when setting this fall’s season strategies. If it’s another liberal season, then something stinks about duck management, too.