Oil Spill? Pass the Mayo!

My science fair project on the Gulf Oil Spill

After covering the Gulf Oil Spill last summer for Scholastic News, I decided to base my 4th grade science project on what I learned.

In Louisiana, the Coast Guard took me and my editor out on a boat to see where the oil had stained the grasses in the wetlands. I also visited the aquarium in New Orleans where I saw turtles that had been cleaned and would be soon be returned to the ocean. I learned that mayonnaise was used to clean the oil off both the grass and turtles.

To clean a turtle that has been covered in oil, the people at the aquarium scrubbed the turtles down with mayo. They cleaned their mouths with mayo on cotton swabs. They also feed mayonnaise to them. Eating mayonnaise cleaned the oil out of the animals’ digestive systems.

In the wetlands, the mayo would stick on the grass and absorb the oil. Pounding waves against the grasses then washed both the mayo and the oil off the grasses and out to sea.

My science fair question was: What well known hamburger condiment could be used to clean up an oil spill? My hypothesis was that mayonnaise would clean oil off the grass the best.

I started out with three identical pots of pet grass similar to the marshes in LA. I covered each with 30-weight automobile oil. Using ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, I attempted to clean the oil from the three different pots of plants.

I found that the ketchup and mustard dripped off the grass, leaving the oil behind. The mayonnaise stuck to the grass and absorbed the oil.

When I rinsed the grasses in a clean bucket of water, the ketchup came off but not the oil. Same thing with the mustard. However, both the mayonnaise and the oil came off the grass with plain water. My hypothesis was correct! Best part of the whole thing? I got an A!

Now, I wonder what it is about mayonnaise that makes it so oil absorbent? Mayo is made of vegetable oil and egg. Is it the vegetable oil, or the egg? Or do both have to be mixed together a certain way? Hmmmm. Maybe, for next year's science fair project......

—Trinity Vogel

PHOTOS: (TOP) Kid Reporter Trinity Vogel works on her Gulf Oil Spill science fair project. (BOTTOM) Three containers of grasses next to (from left) mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. (Photos Courtesy Trinity Vogel)

Oil in the Wetlands

Cleanup continues even after the oil spill is finally stopped.

Today, I rode a 22-foot bay boat out into the wetlands off the coast of Louisiana. We traveled 26 miles from Cocodrie, a small fishing town at the end of state highway 56. The houses are all built up on stilts. Even mobile homes are hoisted on poles.

It took about 40 minutes to get to our destination—a grassy shoreline marked with oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Piloting the boat was Captain Tate Grossie who—until the oil spill—was a shrimp boat captain. He now leases his bay and shrimp boats to the BP oil company to help clean up the Gulf.

Also on the boat was Nathan Bradshaw from the Coast Guard. Together Grossie and Bradshaw take reporters out almost every day to see where the oil has infected the wetlands.

Along the way, as we weaved around the grasses through boat channels, we saw lots of wildlife. Pelicans perched on anything that stuck out of the water, from the frames of fishing shacks long blown away to rocks and pipes.

The pelicans feed off the bait fish constantly jumping along the surface of the water. Two days earlier we saw dolphin, but nothing like that today. Captain Tate said he also sees lots of nutria and raccoons on most of his trips out.

After shooting our video, we headed back to the marina. Before we got too far, we were stopped by a boat that looked like it was made out of tin. We slowed down so it could circle and examine Captain Tate’s pristine white fiberglass boat for any signs of oil.

We were clean, but Captain Tate took us to see what would happen if his boat had picked up any oil along the side. Dirty boats go to a floating “car wash” on the water. The dirty boat drives in between two other boats connected to each other by boom. Booms are like thick rope made of absorbent materials that soak up oil.

Another boom closes the boat in between the two cleaning boats so it is surrounded front and back by boom and on each side by a boat. The dirty boat is then blasted clean with water, the oil is soaked up, and the boat is allowed to continue back to port. The guys who clean the boats stay out on the floating boat wash all day. The most prominent thing I saw were bright green port-a-potties on board the cleaning boats!

I got a little seasick going out to the oil site, but did much better coming back. We were out about two and a half hours. Thank goodness Captain Tate brought ice cold Gatorade!

The Coast Guard didn’t have vests for reporters as small as me, so Captain Tate bought one at a local sporting goods store. He said he would give it his granddaughter once I was done. Thanks, Captain Tate!

—Trinity Vogel

PHOTO: Going 40 miles an hour on a 22-foot bay boat feels more like 140 miles an hour! Kid Reporter Trinity Vogel reports from Cocodrie, Louisiana. (Photo by Suzanne Freeman)

Gulf Oil Spill Dispersed?

The mood improves, but Gulf Coast residents still skeptical.

As Editor of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, I have been in New Orleans this week with two Kid Reporters. We are covering stories about the region's recovery from the Gulf Oil Spill and the upcoming 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

When we first got here, people were somewhat down about the spill and the fact that many fishermen are out of work. They are also stricken by the damage that may be done to the delicate ecosystem in the marshlands along the Louisiana coast.

Today, the mood improved somewhat when the government announced that 90 percent of the oil is gone. It has been dispersed by nature, according to NOAA reports, with the help of chemicals put in the water to break of the slimy substance. Also, thousands of workers have been busy cleaning the oil off of beaches and animals and out of the wetlands.

At the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in the French Quarter in New Orleans today, families crowded around tanks to see rescued sea turtles swimming freely amongst brightly colored tropical fish. The aquarium has put four of the more than 170 rescued turtles on display at the aquarium. That's all that are well enough to be put in with the healthy population of sea life.

Kid Reporter Abi Lista will have a video report on the Audubon turtle rescue efforts that will be posted next week.

Oysters are back on the menus in many of the restaurants in town, though they are smaller (and a bit more bitter tasting) than usual. Some of the bigger beds have been closed until they are deemed safe for harvest again.

Today, the Kid Reporters also retraced some of Abi's steps as a young girl growing up in the New Orleans culture before Hurricane Katrina. A favorite haunt was a Six Flags theme park in New Orleans East. Like parts of its neighborhood, it is still shuttered after five years. Haunt is a good word to use here. The place is a ghost town.

Abi also ate some of her favorite foods, now being threatened by the oil, checked out Mardi Gras World, and walked through the French Quarter.

Check back next week for a report on how her city has made a comeback in some places and not so much in others. She and her dad will tell you why they decided to return rather than resettle somewhere else.

Tomorrow, Kid Reporter Trinity Vogel and I are going out on a boat in the wetlands. Check back here to find out what we saw and what the Coast Guard has to say about the latest news.

—Suzanne Freeman, Editor

PHOTO: One of two rescued Kemp's Ridley turtles that are now well enough to be on display at the Audubon Aquarium of the America's in New Orleans. Once the waters in the Gulf are ruled safe again, the turtles will be returned to the wild. (Photo by Lee Alvey)

Covering the Gulf Oil Spill

A day spent in the Louisiana wetlands.

Today, I'm in Cocodrie, Lousiana, a fishing community in the wetlands south of New Orleans. We are on a dock waiting for a boat that will take us on a tour of the area. The tour is being given by the U.S. Coast Guard. Because of  rain storms, we may have to wait until tomorrow for the tour.

I want to describe this place to you. Right now it is pouring down rain. I just interviewed three journalists—two from San Francisco, California, one from a national radio service in Washington, D.C. Two dolphin were just jumping in the channel behind us. A couple of orange kittens are asleep under one of the Airboat trailers. I also spotted a crab scurrying by the kittens.

The channel I'm standing next to leads to a wider and deeper ship channel which leads to the Gulf of Mexico,two miles out. Between this dock and the Gulf I can see the dolphin, herons, tall grasses, a single long yellow boom, and an oil refinery. From where I sit on a wooden porch swing, I can see a tall pipe topped with a flame—much like a candle on a birthday cake—just across the channel at the refinery. It is burning off excess natural gas I am told.

While waiting for the storms to pass, I also talked to some of the people who work around here. Three of them are airboat captains.

Airboats are shallow metal boats with giant fans on the back. They can skim across the grass and shallow waters that other boats have to go around. Working from an airboat you  can do in a few hours what some boats take days to do.

The captains and their crews look for wildlife in distress. They alert wildlife experts who come and rescue the animals. They also look for any signs of oil where it shouldn't be so they can tell the coastguard and protective booms can be set up.

So, far, where we are in Louisiana, there has not been much sign of oil. Most of the damage has been around Grand Isles, a few hours further east of here.

I will be here for the rest of the week sending in posts. Check back later for more!

—Kid Reporter Trinity Vogel

PHOTO: Check back for a Kid Reporter Trinity Vogel's video interview with three journalists covering the Gulf Oil Spill. Two are from San Francisco and one from Wasington, D.C. She met up with the reporters in Cocodrie, Louisiana, Tuesday, August 3, 2010.  (Photo Courtesy Trinity Vogel)