Posted by PENSACOLA – For days, CNN’s small army of reporters, photographers and producers has been repositioning toward Florida as oil was expected to come ashore in the Sunshine State.
And on Friday morning, tar balls – hundreds of small bits of hardened oil – littered Pensacola’s white beaches. Our iReporters had been saying they had spotted tar balls nearby and in different areas a few days earlier. So we set out to check the beaches.
Tourists were the first to begin cleaning it up. iReporter Marc Sigler said he had been camping in Fort Pickens on Tuesday when he saw tar balls; they spent the next day swimming, picking it up and cleaning the beach.
This oil hitting our beaches is devastating. I wake up every day to watch the sunrise and my beloved birds. If I see one covered in oil I will flat out lose it.