Oil, Dispersants, and Despair

Images by Michael Hanrahan

Mike deGruy

This week marks the 100-day anniversary of the worst oil spill in the history of the United States. On April 20, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up off the coast of Louisiana for reasons that remain unknown. Killing 11 rig workers, the catastrophic explosion opened up the floodgates to a mind-boggling flow of oil that spewed relentlessly into the Gulf of Mexico until July 15.

Coming at the worst possible time of year for the fragile underwater ecosystems that call the Gulf home — not to mention the scores of Gulf-region communities that lean heavily on the fishing industry to make ends meet — the fallout from the disaster, as devastating as it has already been, is really only beginning to be understood.

For Santa Barbara-based filmmaker Mike deGruy, who is known the world over for making underwater movies for National Geographic, PBS, BBC, and the Discovery Channel — not to mention producing an impressive list of his own projects — the spill has struck both a professional and personal chord. For deGruy, a native of Mobile, Alabama, who first fell in love with the underwater world thanks to his upbringing on the Gulf Coast and who later pursued a PhD in marine biology before his unexpected detour into the world of underwater nature films, the story of the spill and the fallout it will have on the marine life in the Gulf has been foremost on his mind since that fateful April day.

Just back from an almost month-long tour of the Gulf region, not to mention a last-minute invite to take part in a U.S. government-sanctioned, high-powered powwow on the subject in D.C. in early June, deGruy sat down with The Independent last week to recount his experiences at the front lines of what is fast becoming the worst environmental disaster of our lifetime. Here is an adapted version of his talk with news reporter Ethan Stewart.

Read Mike deGruy's interview with Ethan Stewart at the Santa Barbara Independent

SURVEYING THE SCENE: Santa Barbara-based underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy traveled to the Gulf of Mexico last month to witness firsthand, via planes, boats, and automobiles, the devastation of the BP oil spill.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: A tell-tale ring of oil traces the hull of the boat that Mike deGruy and fellow ocean filmmaker Michael Hanrahan took out into the Gulf to assess the situation both under and above the water.

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