What's Washing Up?

"I've never seen it before and it's all up and down the beach."
Swirling around in the surf and all along the tide line, a dark, gooey substance that has folks working at the Gulf State pier scratching their heads.

"I would like to know. I've asked and I never got a straight answer. Of course, it's really going to take a scientist or somebody to take a look at this and tell us what it is," says state park officer Chuck Kelly.

Maybe a scientist or a scientific piece of equipment that can determine whether it's organic or another form of oil from the Deepwater Horizon.

So we took a sample. Picked up what we thought was a tar ball and a jelly fish and took it to Orange Beach to put it under a UV light that can give us the answer.

"It has the consistency and feel of a tar ball and this is the mystery substance," says environmental engineer Kit Alexander. She uses what she knows is a tar ball as a control for our experiment. Then, the lights go off.

"There you go. Isn't that great, it's instantaneous." What shows up as orange, is oil. Our sample, "That clearly is not related to this incident whatsoever," says Alexander.

It's an experiment she hopes others in our area will take advantage of. "We appreciate any sightings and utilization of this tool so if there is any product we can get a sample put it under the tool determine if it's a hydra carbon."

Back at the pier, relief it's not oil. But still keeping watch on every wave and after the last nine months, who can blame them.

Alexander says anyone in our area that wants to have a substance tested can call her office at 251-981-2610 to set up an appointment to have the sample tested. It just takes a few minutes.