While on the freeway I noticed a really strong oil smell and was very distressed at being able to smell it from so far away. I looked up and noticed a car in front of me that was smoking badly, perhaps it was him, but then after passing him the odor was still there. It was low tide and warming up, the tidal flats had become a toxic stew. I looked at the bay and noticed booms placed around many of the beaches.

The tide was very low and after parking I walked out to a trail heading towards the shore, put on my hazmat suit and stepped onto the beach. I brought the camera along and what you see here are images from my trip. I was very dismayed that I could not see much in the way of clean up activity. In the water I saw plenty of oil globs floating and the tide pools were soaked in oil. Some of the seaweed seemed to attract the oil.

After a difficult hike and climb on oil slicked rocks I made it to a beach covered in not just oil, but sea glass as well. I was very pleased to see that the oil did not seem to be attracted to the sea glass, but it was coating several rocks. There seemed to water droplet sized little splotches of oil everywhere. The oil is very dark and thick and quite nasty.

For most of the trip I wore gloves and only took them off for a little bit, while I had them off I came in contact with oil even though I did not see it. There also seemed to be a fine film or mist of it scattered about on many surfaces, invisible to the naked eye, but visible when on your fingertips after contact. I glanced down at my bootie covered shoes and noticed that I had been picking up quite a bit of oil as they were caked in oil. The oil is nearly a perfect black and very smelly, one of the end products after refining gasoline.

I was very concerned for the marine animals whom I consider to be my friends. There are several Harbor Seals who follow me when I go kayaking and there are always plenty of Surf Scoter, Ducks, Sea Gulls, Cormorants, Pelicans and other sea birds out when I go beach combing. This trip was different. I saw only a handful of birds and they seemed to be okay. I did see two Harbor Seals, but that was it. Soon after the spill occured I had placed a call out to the animals to inform them to get as far away they could possibly go, away from the areas affected. I believe many of them listened. Up in the Marin Headlands, there was a disaster as many oil soaked animals were being collected and dozens of dead ones were being recovered from the affected beaches. Bowling ball sized balls of thick oil was washing up on Rodeo beach, two days after the spill.