1) BP recently closed Fourchon Beach to the public for undisclosed reasons
2) BP sets up a staging area for the oil cleanup on Fourchon Beach [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
3) A BP cleanup crew on Fourchon Beach prepares to excavate buried oil [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
4) Eroded sand on Wisner Land Donation's section of Fourchon Beach shows large oil and tar mats sunken below the sand's surface [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
5) Scraping even a centimeter below the sand's surface yields glistening toxic oil that was never cleaned up by BP in 2010 [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
6) Al Jazeera spotted several dead birds, two of which were Louisiana's state bird, the Brown Pelican, nearby the oil and tar on Fourchon Beach [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
7) Forrest Travirca, the Field Inspector for Wisner Land Donation, stands next to a buried tar mat mixed with BP's oil cleanup debris. Pink flags mark the oil that BP is supposed to clean up [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
Fields of tar balls cover the beach's surface [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
9) Close-up of a tar ball with oiled seashells [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
10) The largest oil mat discovered on Fourchon Beach lies buried under the sand. It is approximately 150 metres long, 100 metres wide, and 20 mm thick [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
11) Forrest Travirca shows Al Jazeera that the oil under the sand is wet and "fresh", and is therefore still highly toxic to the environment, wildlife and marine animals [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
12) Al Jazeera witnessed several boats shrimping right off these oiled beaches, which contained oil and tar mats buried along the shoreline as well as under the water [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]
