As I mentioned in Monday’s blog, today we are going to look at the waves that battered the coast during our last storm surge . The first shot shows you West Cliff Drive on a relatively calm day. Shot number two zeroes in on the same spot with the waves smashing against shoreline, creating mountains of water that were exploding up onto West Cliff and providing April showers in February. While I was shooting the fifth photo a rogue wave made an unexpected appearance about 10 yards from me and just soaked the bike path. It hit with such ferocity that if that wave had nailed me I would now be sketching photos of the sunrise-it hit the coast with more force than a Barack crowd at an Oprah book signing.

The last shot again shows the same location on the coast on a somewhat calmer and more collected day. There’s always a feeling of excitement when it’s storming on the cliff. I never tire of the rushing white water, the white gulls floating and circling in the wind or any Barry White love song. Speaking of which, the waves and high surf exploding off the coast that day along with the sound and the action and the fury reminded me of my wedding night. I guess that’s why my new bride kept yelling “Riptide.” Ah, those special memories.

As you can tell, I am very much into the environment. Well, that and making sure my TiVo is recording “Hannah Montana” every night. A decade ago, a team of governmental experts and environmental researchers banded together to tackle an alarming and growing problem in the Gulf of Mexico. No, not the endless drinking and wild partying on houseboats during spring break. We’re talking about a lifeless, oxygen-depleted band of ocean water stretching from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Texas border that had grown to more than 6,000 square miles that summer, larger than the state of Connecticut, Heidi Fleiss’ client list and Bill O’Reilly’s ego.

Four years later, their research on the gulf’s “dead zone” led to an agreement among nine states, numerous federal agencies, two American Indian tribes and a coed lacrosse team to significantly reduce the size by 2015. Solving the problem is a vast undertaking. Fertilizer runoff and waste from farms and towns in the nation’s heartland pour billions of pounds of excess nutrients into the Mississippi and eventually the gulf, sparking unnatural algae blooms that choke off the oxygen supply vital for army, navy and marine life.

Almost halfway to the 2015 goal, the dead zone (or you can just call it the White House) is still growing, reaching nearly 8,000 square miles this year, one of the largest ever recorded. Researchers say the dead zone problem will continue into the future, at the peril of the gulf’s ecosystem. According to Don Scavia, a professor of natural resources and environment at the University of Michigan who led one of the first federal studies of the dead zone in 2000, “We’re starting to find impacts in the shrimp catch. We’re at the point where it may be hard to recover because the ecosystem has changed so much..” Now where is Forrest Gump when we need him? This could very well lead to a jumbalaya crisis of unknown proportions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides incentives like free tickets to ballgames to encourage farmers to retire farmland to prevent erosion and restore wetlands that could soak up fertilizer runoff and install buffers between the fields and streams. The EPA encourages states to set limits on the nutrients released into their waterways. But the majority of these programs are voluntary, much like someone (Kobe Bryant) buying their wife a $4 million diamond ring after they’ve screwed up nationally. “The lag times are tremendous. It may be four, five or six years before a farmer sees a reduction in nitrogen,” says Otto Doering, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. This is something they have to do on faith and it’s tough to go on faith when faith costs you something.” I believed it’s called Blind Faith. Or maybe it was Moby Grape. Or perhaps Hot Tuna.

The USDA point to nearly 4 millions acres of farmland taken out of production for wetlands or buffer zones between 2000 and 2005 and 18.3 million acres under nutrient management plans. But with corn prices reaching record highs to feed the nation’s hunger for ethanol production, more than 15 million new acres of farmland were devoted to corn last year compared to 2006. This was second only to the 20 million new acres of porn that was planted in the San Fernando Valley last year.

Some researchers have criticized a lack of coordination among the states, a lack of leadership by the EPA and a lack of qualified suitors as to why Condy Rice is still single. A recent National Research Council reports calls on the EPA to be much more vigilant in enforcing nutrient pollution and crayfish poaching, calling the Mississippi River system an orphan in need of guidance. The plan back in 2001 was to reduce the average size of the dead zone to 1,930 square miles by 2015. But what they are now saying that it may not be possible to achieve this goal by 2015. However, they are making progress so let’s just be grateful for the dead zone.

That’s our show for a Wednesday. Coming up on Friday we’ll once again bring you an assortment of shots that even an NBA superstar like LeBron James would have trouble coming up with. And you’ve seen how he brings it at crunch time. So enjoy the day, enjoy the spray and we’ll catch with some color on Friday. Mahalo.