A Family Standing Up For What They Believe In: A Walk On the Beach Part 2

On May 9th, Eric and I hit the beach again. It had been days since our first trip out. This time we covered the beach from Long Beach harbor to Pass Christian Harbor. We knew that the beaches changed from day to day but our goal was to cover all beaches from Waveland to Gulfport. We wanted to see the conditions of all the beaches and see if we could see a difference in any of them. Although we were in Mississippi for 2 weeks, the amount of time were able to go out was limited, so we wanted to make the most of our time. This was a very long walk. The surf was very rough this day.

As we started out it was clear that clean up crews had been out that morning. But it was clear they were not cleaning up dead animals! On this stretch of the beach the tar balls were smaller and there were fewer of them. But there was not a shortage of dead animals. There were tons of fresh washed up fish along the beach. Everything from fish heads to whole fish. We came to the conclusion that some of the fish washing up were fish that had been caught. The fish heads we found had clearly been severed and thrown into the water. We also found catfish that appeared to have been caught filleted and the remains tossed into the water. We found a whole fish with a hook and line in its mouth as well. It is clear that some of these fish are victims of fishing, however it was also clear that most were not. There were lots of dead whole fish, rays, birds, and our first turtle. It was clear the turtle had been there for a long time. We saw lots of Sea birds, but still no pelicans. Where are the pelicans? I have never been to this area and not seen pelicans.