Make no mistake: The Gulf of Mexico is still an oily mess.

We just received this email in our inbox and thought that it was important, up-to-date information about the true nature of the Gulf Oil Spill conditions at the present time. Regardless of any information that is being disseminated to the contrary, this is still a crisis and disaster of huge proportion that will require ongoing focus and attention for a long time to come. Volunteers, as well as continued financial support, are still needed to assist in relief and clean-up efforts.

Dear Marjorie ,

Video of Kierán Suckling surveying oiled beaches on Grand Isle. Video of Assistant Director Sarah Bergman discussing wildlife impacts from BP oil spill.

Today marks four months since BP's negligence and lack of government oversight caused the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig to explode, sending over 200 million gallons of oil in to the Gulf of Mexico.

To assess how much damage was done, we just spent this week walking the Gulf's beaches, boating through its marshes, and flying over its open water.

What we saw firsthand was horrific.

Beaches are covered in oil; pools of liquid oil ooze on the surface and oil mixed with sand is hardened into mats along the water's edge. On Grand Isle, just south of New Orleans, some beaches look fine from a distance but are actually sitting atop massive amounts of oil which bubbled to the surface as we walked across the sand. Digging into the sand with rubber gloves, we struck oil just six inches below the clean looking surface.

Crabs and birds continue to be covered in oil as they cross the beaches or land in the marshes.  Fish and sea turtles are forced to swim through oil on the surface and below the surface as they look for food. The marshes in Grand Isle smell of oil and an oily sheen covers the earth.

In short, a full four months post-BP explosion, the Gulf of Mexico is still an oily mess despite rosy assertions by oil companies and the Obama administration that most of the oil is gone. Our survey this week supports the conclusion of independent scientists, who announced findings on Monday that 80% of the oil is still present and continues to foul the beaches, waters, marshes and wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico.

But we also saw something else when we were in the Gulf.

People are stepping up to do their part, and more.

• On Grande Isle, we met a young scientist (and Center supporter) who has collected nearly 5,000 oil-covered hermit crabs, cleaning them off one by one in a make-shift lab and releasing them 15 miles away where the oil hasn't reached yet. (Support her efforts by joining "Hermit Crab Survival Project" on Facebook.)

• In New Orleans, we met a professional photographer visually capturing the oil's effect on the food chain, and a documentary film crew explaining how big oil money has captured local communities, Congress, and even the White House

• On the docks, we met shrimp fishermen getting ready to testify before Congress about how the dispersants sprayed on the BP oil killed off millions of shrimp.

It was humbling to see the impact of the oil spill firsthand, and inspiring to see many people taking action. And, to know that the many late nights our staff has, and will put in are absolutely necessary to protect and recover our Gulf -- and to make sure this never happens again, anywhere.

The Center for Biological Diversity will continue our major response effort by pushing forward with seven lawsuits against BP and the corrupt government regulators who allowed BP and dozens of other oil companies to dangerously drill for oil with no environmental review, lax safety measures and useless clean-up plans.

Your help has been tremendous so far and we hope that you won't let the lessons we need to learn from this oil disaster fade away. Stay motivated: check out the slideshow we put together from the trip, and share this email with your friends.

It's been a long four months, but we're not done yet. The oil's still in our environment and the causes of the explosion still need to be addressed.

Thanks to all of you who have written letters, signed petitions, donated money and gone to the Gulf to help with the clean up. Without you we wouldn't be able to be so effective, and wildlife would be dying in even larger numbers. We'll keep the updates coming.

With thanks and resolve,
 

Kierán Suckling Executive Director

Sarah Bergman Assistant Executive Director

P.S. You can read an account of our trip by one of the people we traveled with in today's article on SolveClimate:

After Filing $19 Billion of Lawsuits, Activist Leaders Take a Whirlwind Tour of the Gulf
by Jacoba Charles - Aug 19th, 2010  // SolveClimate

NEW ORLEANS, LA. -- Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity, Kieran Suckling, is on his cell phone as he steers a rental car through downtown New Orleans. Beside him, the Center's assistant director Sarah Bergman gives directions while working on a laptop and sending email from her cell.

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, …the environmental organization has filed seven lawsuits worth $19 billion against BP and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Yet this is the first trip its busy directors have made to the place that they have been fighting to protect.

On the second day of Suckling and Bergman's whirlwind tour of Louisiana, the White House Council on Environmental Quality released a long-awaited report which recommended ending the use of "categorical exclusions" to approve oil drilling in the gulf. Between that news, and an unrelated controversy involving off-road vehicle use in California, Suckling's phone is even busier than usual as reporters call him for his reliably colorful quotes, and staff call to craft press releases. . .

A Whirlwind Tour

Even while Suckling and Bergman multitask, they are working to absorb as much of the environmental situation in Louisiana as they can. In keeping with the Center's mission, their three-day trip is designed to assess not only the oil damage but also the overall diversity of the bayou ecosystem.

"We have a direct relationship with a lot of the issues we work on," Suckling says. "But here I think we were missing that experience and connection. We've put our heart and soul into the work, but we hadn't seen the place for ourselves. . ."

The last stop of the day is the Grand Island State Park, where remnants of the oil that poured into the gulf for 88 days still linger on the shores. Suckling and Bergman put on blue rubber gloves to touch the tarry globs that ooze up from beneath the sand.

"It's been almost 5 months this week and we're getting all these reports that the oil is gone," Bergman says. "Being down here, you can see it's not gone. You touch the beach and it starts bubbling up."

"I'm going to remember this pile of oil soaked mud in my hand, and it is what is will keep us going," Suckling adds. "The $19 billion we are seeking is to clean this up."

Read more here.

For more information and how you may be able to help:

Florida Information Lines:

The Florida Oil Spill Information Line (FOSIL) is available from 8am-6pm EDT daily.

• English – (888) 337-3569 / TDD – (800) 955-8771 / Voice – (800) 955-8770

• Spanish – (877) 955-8773

• Haitian Creole – (877) 955-8707

For general health/exposures information questions related to the oil spill, contact the Florida Poison Control Center at (800) 222-1222.

Two public hotline numbers for oil spill investigation and cleanup:

• Impacted Wildlife: (866) 557-1401

• Oiled Shoreline: (877) 2-SAVE-FL or #DEP for cellular devices

The Florida Department of State has established a hotline for archeological, historical preservation, and tribal lands that may be impacted by the Deepwater Horizon incident: (850) 245-6530.

To confirm legitimate charities and determine if an organization is registered with the state, call Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) (800) 435-7352 or www.800helpfla.com.

Information Websites:

Volunteer registration: www.VolunteerFlorida.org and click “Register to Help”

Health advisories: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/health.htm

State sampling data: www.nrdata.org

GATOR web mapping application: http://map.floridadisaster.org/gator/

Recovery related jobs, response management application: http://FloridaGulfRecoveryJobs.com/

NOAA GeoPlatform:  http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse