Lessons after Deep Horizon oil spill?

United States Coast Guard

Deep Water Horizon oil well

"Every so often, a major event involving [the Gulf of Mexico] reminds us that we are not the sole animating force in our history," writes UF history professor Jack E. Davis. "Nature is an equal, sometime greater, influence (something history books fail to teach), and from Texas to Florida, the Gulf is nature supreme."

"We should pause to understand that for the past 150 years our behavior has been on a collision course with the Gulf and its enriching presence," he writes in an op-ed piece for the Tallahassee Democrat.

Read the full article Treat the Gulf right and it will return the favor

Is it illegal to dig in the sand?

Don't plan to dig on the beach at the Gulf Islands National Seashore. You could be in big trouble. UPDATE: Here's a followup to that earlier report. Apparently a staffer was misinformed. Digging is okay at the beach, where you might dig up oil, just not near Fort Pickens, where you might dig up an artifact.