I'm very must in accordance with Campesina.
What I saw:
This started happening in the night of Dec 16, 2009. I didn't have a chance to go to the beach until early this morning (Dec 18). It took me a little while before finding any evidence of what happened, so this nothing like a Exxon Valdese thing. However, apparently, there was quite a bit more "evidence" the morning of Dec. 17th. Unfortunately, I missed that, but I have photos of this morning (Dec 18). Check out
Index of /oil-on-beach
What people that "know about this kind of stuff" say:
I talked to some people "that know" about these things (sorry, I will not name them but they really know). They all say that there is nothing to worry about. What they say is the following: An oil tanker must have "cleaned up" not too far from here (north coast of the Dominican Republic), upstream of the current. This is completely illegal, however, it happens a lot around the world. Not so much anymore but, as we are witnessing in Cabarete right now, it does still happen. It used to happen a lot in Dubai, Florida, and many other places around the world. But, it is nothing like a fully loaded oil tanker spilling oil. They says, just as Campesina says, it is "mostly a nuisance" to people. Wildlife should not affected.
The greatest nuisance for individuals is mostly with this goo getting stuck on your feet. (I got some stuck on my feet too). Apparently, the very best way to get rid of it is with fly spray. Something like Baygon - apparently it works like magic. (I'm not too sure about putting fly killer on my feet - I didn't do that). The other thing that works quite well is cooking oil. (I did do that and it worked way better than soap, but getting rid of the oil is quite a bit of work too - more or less like getting rid of the oil after a oil massage).
What to do:
The great majority of the oil patches are mixed up with the sea weed that washes up almost daily. That stuff is removed every morning. This is why I probably didn't see much of the oil this morning (most had been removed already by the regular cleaning of the beach the day before - I did go before the cleaning this morning). My guess is that by tomorrow or after-tomorrow, there will be just about zero evidence of this incident. So, for the beach of Cabarete, I think nothing special has to be done. It's probably almost all gone by now.
Beyond that:
I personally think that it would be really nice if the culprit can get caught and they get a huge fine (and Cabarete gets part of it to do positive environmental stuff with it - we really need it), but the "people that know about these things" tell me that there is most probably no way anyone will be found guilty. But anyway, this is somewhat beyond what I wanted to report here.