“Oh my God,” my friend, Beth Ann cried. “This is unbelievable!” Black goo covered the beach. Hundreds of animals were fighting for their lives.
My heart was breaking to watch as some of the animals were losing their fight to live. “So this is why there are no spectators watching the beach today. They are all down on the beach helping to clean up this devastating oil spill and save the animals that have gotten trapped in it.
Beth Ann heard that 101,000 gallons of oil from a ruptured pipeline spilled onto the Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County. Twenty-two oil stricken birds and twenty-eight marine mammals have died. Forty birds and twenty-eight marine mammals, so far, have been rescued.
Both girls quickly rolled up their sleeves and ran to the beach to help. They knew the wildlife rescue needed as much help as it could get and this was not going to be just another fun day at the beach. (160 words)
Thank you to Alistair Forbes for the great photo prompt this week.
Thank you to our kind host for this fun flash fiction challenge is Alistair Forbes. He gives us a photo prompt and approximately 200 words to write a flash fiction story. It’s fun and addicting. If you would like to participate, click on this link: Sunday Photo Fiction for more information.
BEAUTIFUL WORDS 
Great job! I remember when there was that big oil spill in the Gulf, I felt SO AWFUL for all the poor animals affected by it!
Very recently there was an oil spill right on the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The statistics of deaths and injuries of animals that I put in my story today were true amounts of animal deaths and injuries at Santa Barbara.
Good job Priceless! A clean looking beach is a great prompt for where you went with your story.
Yes, the oil spill at Santa Barbara, California is very sad. The numbers of animals that I used in my story are the true numbers of animals/birds that have been killed or injured at Santa Barbara recently.
Tying reality in with your fiction. Fabulous. You would make a great historical fiction writer. 🙂
Thanks! I appreciate such a wonderful comment!
You’re welcome. It’s one of my favorite genres.
It’s a good story. It would be better without a real world prompt. At least there’s hope.
I completely agree with you! It would be better if it wasn’t from a real world event.
I loved the story Joy! A correction if I may? You need one more zero in your third paragraph. Be well my friend! ^..^
Thanks Barb! I will change it!
🙂 Just wanted to help! Hugs ^..^
Thank you! I sure missed it!
Such a heart breaking scene and you, but you did a great job and conveying that
Thank you Cat! This is a true story. It happened recently at Santa Barbara, California.
Great message in this short and meaningful story!
Thank you!
So sad what oil spills do.
It really is sad. The poor animals, birds, and fish are victims due to human error and greed.
Exactly
Oil spills are devastating things and the loss of wildlife and damage to the environment in general is enormous. There have been quite a few major ones around the world, all with heartbreaking results. You described that well in your story. I also liked the way you showed the girls’ instant decision to help.
Thank you Millie! When I saw the picture was a beach scene I couldn’t help but think of the recent oil spill at Santa Barbara, California. They are terrible tragedies for the fish, birds, and sea animals.
Oil spills can be deadly things. I remember the one from a few years back on your side of the pond in the Gulf (I think). Now that was horrid.
You’re right! It was horrid!! I doubt that the oceans ever recover fully from them. How can they get every bit of oil that was spilled out of the ocean?
That’s a fantastic fiction piece Joy. Nicley done with the recent oil spill disaster in California.
Thank you Norma. I really appreciate your comment. There are way too many oil spills!! Something needs to be done to prevent them. What, I don’t know.
Real drama and the young girls were ready to help. Shows that is all help and stand together the world can become a better place. Well written and use of information. 🙂
Thank you Scrapydotwo! I just wove some truth into my story because of the oil spill recently.
Shows how events trigger imagination!
Yes indeed! I took the facts from the recent oil spill and used them in my story.
A great read PJ ….. not only this is a poignant story but an awakening and inspiration to all 🙂
Thank you Ady!! I just think that even one accidental oil spill is one too many! We should be doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen to begin with. Sorry, it gets my dander up.
I was reading about it yesterday , it Is so shocking , it continues to grow even after years in the form of oil,sand,carbon lumps which travel forward to other areas, they strike against rocks and beaches and form tiny oil spills there !
I think these companies spend a lot of money to keep it out of the press as much as possible. These oil spills are death sentences to thousands of fish, sea animals, and birds. Healthy oceans are critical to the survival of the human race. I’m beginning to wonder why we should survive if all we do is destroy our planet.
Excellent and very timely, however sad that this is a true story!
Yes, very sad!
The amount of times this happens is far too high. From huge leaks the Exxon Valdez to Deepwater Horizon oil spills to smaller “almost anyone notices” ones.
But any creature that is part of the eco-system will feel it.
Very contemporary story with a great message. Glad that the girls felt a day at the beach didn’t have to mean only sun, sand, and surf.
Thanks Phylor! I agree. They should make these to be absolutely spill proof so there is no chance that there could be a spill.
Great story but a very sad event that has happened to cause that many deaths to the animals 😦
Yes, it is very sad! It is terrible!
Great story … in that the people run to help … so sad that there was the necessity to do so … although fiction this could so easily happen 😦
This is based on the Santa Barbara, California oil spill recently. All the numbers I used are from that. Thank you for your kind comment.
Ah .. terrible … I’d not heard of the Santa Barbara oil spill here in Italy … but we’ve heard of many others …
Yes, the Santa Barbara, California coast had an oil spill from faulty pipelines. Over 100,000 gallons of crude oil was spilled into the ocean. This happened recently.
Oh my heavens … and there are those who’d still say the Alaskan pipeline is safe or would use Nuclear power … just imagine what lack of maintenance can do in these cases! (Well actually we here can’t forget Chernobyl.) I do hope they got the mess cleaned up a bit … we’ve had similar incidents on the Channel and in fact not so very long ago on the Coast of France. Why do we not study alternative power sources?
I agree. Alternative power sources. Oil is only going to last so long and when it is gone it is gone. The Alaskan pipeline, I don’t think would involve our oceans. Nuclear power plants are safe until they aren’t safe and that is frightening!
What a great story! It’s terrible what’s going on in Santa Barbara. It’s shocking that this company was allowed to operate as it did. The poor birds and fish and other wildlife 😦
Ellespeth
So very true! The poor sea life! It is just terrible!