On April 20, 2010 The Deepwater Horizon Oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana and killed 11 oil rig workers.
Over 87 days, 205.8 million gallons of oil 225,000 tons of methane, and 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersants spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil fouled 1,300 miles of shoreline along five states.
This was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
I remember the explosion and also watching these images of oil gushing from deep within the Earth into the ocean
Do you remember this image? Oil spewed non-stop for almost three months.
From this disaster came a block buster Hollywood movie, several excellent books, and now my debut novel, The Pelican Tide. I try to have a lot of fun with this newsletter, but on this grimmest of anniversaries, I want to pay respect to the tragedy of lost life, and the lingering environmental and social effects of this spill.
This photo below shows the reddish brown oil washing onto delicate marsh land. The oil kills at the microscope level and all through the food chain. One of the lingering problems coastlines are experiencing today is loss of land mass. The oil killed important coastal plants that prevent erosion. Without strong roots, nothing stops the force of the ocean from dissolving the land like a sand castle.
This image below shows how the oil spill eroded the coastline and how it has been further weakened by powerful Gulf storms.
I’m Really Sad
I didn’t write The Pelican Tide out of sadness. I imagined the story after asking myself. What happened to the people?
I’ve Met The People
In 2021 as I was finishing The Pelican Tide, Hurricane Ida hit the island. It damaged each of the island’s 2500 structures and destroyed 700 of them. The island lost power, water, and all services.
Grand Isle is a special place. When I saw that a Restore Grand Isle project had started, I reached out and met Ronnie Sampey, director of the program. The islanders are replanting native plants, including land-preserving oak trees. They are helping the community to rebuild and encouraging people to return. The challenge now as Ronnie tells me is fighting through government red tape for assistance. Residents are facing an uphill battle for permitting and building code requirements, and then they are faced with not surprisingly sky high insurance costs. “We need our people to return to the island.”
What Now?
It’s logical to ask if any town should rebuild. In the face of a climate emergency, is it wise to spend money and risk human life? This is a question also being asked in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The shoreline of Rodanthe has suffered staggering loss.
Jean Landry, a Grand Isle resident and manager of the Nature Conservancy told me, “People ask why we are rebuilding and I say the same thing. This is my home.”
Barrier islands serve a vital function for our ecosystem. Islands provide important habitats for migrating birds and around the globe host one of a kind species. For the human species, barrier islands slow down storms as they lose their force when they cross over land. Without barrier islands, hurricanes would hit coastal areas even harder than they do now. As our seas warm, hurricanes increase in frequency and intensity, barrier islands are even more important. And they are more vulnerable. Human efforts to replant vegetation and restore lost shoreline may seem futile, but if it were your home wouldn’t you?
The Outer Banks is where the Wright Brothers took their first flight. Grand Isle too has a long history. One of the latest Restore Grand Isle projects is to save their historic Oleander Hotel.
When I learned about this property I had a feeling of deja vu. Odeal’s, the restaurant I write about in The Pelican Tide is similar place. A community center and the heart of my fictional version of Grand Isle.
I encourage you to learn more about Grand Isle and the Restore Grand Isle non-profit. This town may not be your home or even in your state. But these amazing people are like your neighbors, your friends, and your family. Their story is our story. These are the people I wanted to know when I asked, what happened to the people.
Louisiana’s barrier islands are disappearing. But not without a fight!
I’m fighting for it.
You can read The Pelican Tide now.
Sharon J. Wishnow is a transplanted New Englander who makes her home in Northern Virginia. In addition to writing upmarket fiction with environmental themes, Sharon writes non-fiction in the science, technology, and business categories with a passion for research, seashells, birds, and the ocean. She has been a member of the Boston Malacological Club since she was ten years old. She credits growing up by the ocean and family camping trips for her love and respect for all that is outside her door.
Sharon is the former Vice President of Communications for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), the founder of Women’s Fiction Day, and is the Executive Editor of the WFWA magazine, WriteOn!
She has an MFA from George Mason University, a publications certification from George Washington University, and a BA from Clark University. She regularly speaks about research and writing and publishes a regular newsletter, Research for Writers and Other Curious People.
When she’s not writing or researching, you can find her in the garden, watching the birds in her backyard, or feeding peanuts to the local squirrels.
The Pelican Tide is her first novel. She is represented by Ann Leslie Tuttle of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, LLC.
Solutions Spotlight
Today we share an extract from the middle grade time travel novel Seabean, Sarah Holding talks about renewable energy.
Charlie looked quizzically at Alice.
‘OK, so what’s the plan?’ he asked.
‘Remember in May when Karla and I did a factory reset on the C-Bean and we accidentally went back to 1918?’
‘Yep.’
‘Well, I don’t think I ever told you but we went on a little school trip with Dora and Donald to the Great Exhibition in 1851.’
‘You did what?’
‘It was Donald’s idea – he just wanted to time travel somewhere for real and that’s what they’d just been learning about in history.’
‘And?’
‘We arrived in this massive glass building in the middle of Hyde Park in London. I remember wondering what the Victorians would make of our futuristic C-Bean, but I used the invisible command for the first time, so until it started wearing off, no one could actually see it.’
‘Alice, can you please get to the point – we haven’t got time for a long-winded story!’
‘OK, be patient, I’m getting to it. What if we go back there now, but this time with a whole bunch of things that are visible? Whatever we take with us, the Victorians will assume they’re amazing modern inventions from somewhere or other – the whole place was full of them. But in actual fact, our C-Bean would be a sort of time capsule, delivering on a plate to people in 1851 all the knowhow from the future that would mean they never have to burn fossil fuels to make their factories and their vehicles run, because they would have the technology to get all the energy they need from the wind or the waves or the sun. Think about it, Charlie – it’d be the best antidote ever!’
Alice’s face was flushed with excitement. ‘Maybe your parents are right after all – you have gone bonkers!’
‘I’m not bonkers Charlie. This is the way we can use what we know about the future, just like you said. This is how we can change everything. If we give the Victorians enough information – show them what our dads already know – that it’s cheaper and cleaner to use things like wave power instead of burning coal and oil – the ice won’t melt, the sea won’t rise, the animals won’t die, get the picture? There’ll be no need for either Plan A or Plan B – that’ll mean no need for Operation Seabean whatsoever!’
I'm excited to see this -- your novel sounds amazing. Also - I'm just in Annapolis (and grew up in NOVA), so if you'd ever like to organize a MD-DC-VA Substack meet-up, I'd love to join ranks. The Deepwater Horizon has been an obsession of mine ever since it happened. Wrote about most recently here: https://open.substack.com/pub/juliegabrielli/p/between-the-devil-and-the-deepwater?r=4cg2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web