BLUE CRAB MYSTERY SOLVED

Gosh, where did the time go? Seems like ages since I put something into the blog. I've been concentrating on research, setting up my computer, finding lost items, checking out the town and fishing.

About the research... when we were at the Grand Isle State Park I took a photo of a handicapped blue crab. Here is the photo...

I feel sorry for the little crab with no claws to defend itself or to use to bring it's food to it's mouth. But there was something else that was bothering me and that was the why didn't it have claws. Well, my research finally paid off in an article that ran about the mutated crabs born with no claws, shrimp with no eyes, fish with tumors and open sores  around the Barataria Bay. Grand Isle is between Barataria Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. This area was hard hit by the Gulf Oil Spill that shocked the world.  I read in the article that the mutations and sickness was not caused by the oil itself but by the chemicals used to clean up the oil. This poor little crab was not tortured but was born with it's claws.

What the article brought to the forefront of my mind is that this area has not healed yet. Will it ever? Will this mutation be passed on through the altered genes into it's offspring? I wonder.

Then there is the issue of the shrimp in this area. This area is one of the major seafood suppliers of the world. Not all of the shrimp are mutated or sick but enough to worry about if they are toxic to humans. I wonder about those that we ate. I am going to start with a detox program using green tea and milk thistle. There is also another issue with the shrimp and that is that there is an aggressive Asian Tiger shrimp invading the Gulf waters. This Tiger shrimp is three times the size of the Gulf shrimp. It will eat the young of the Gulf shrimp. I was told by my spiritual guide that I would see the extinction of many species. So that leaves me with the guestion are we seeing the dying off of the Gulf species?

I spoke with a local lady today about the area and the Gulf is still sick. The economy is still suffering here. She said that at this time of year the tourist and fishermen used to pack the island on weekends but not now. They are hoping that memorial day things will pick up. She said that sometimes it took a car two hours to drive from one end of town to the other because of the traffic and people. But that they have not seen it that way since the oil spill.

I also noted on the beach that there were a lot of dead pelicans, gulls and fish. There is a crew that keeps the beaches clean so it is not so noticeable. But when I was going out on the long pier daily I could see them.

We are staying at the cheapest RV park on the island. Being that the speckled trout are biting right now this park should have been packed full over the weekend but it wasn't. They still had empty spaces for rent.

What this is leaving me to believe is that there is trouble in paradise...