Workers spreading booms to keep oil off Ala. coast - Florida AP - MiamiHerald.com

Workers spreading booms to keep oil off Ala. coast - Florida AP - MiamiHerald.com: "MOBILE, Ala. -- Boats strung oil-absorbing booms along Alabama's coast Thursday to protect sensitive marshes and bayous from a huge petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but plans call for letting any oil that reaches the beaches to wash on to the sugar-white sand.

Officials said beaches are far easier to clean than wetlands, so the work was concentrated mainly on areas that could be damaged the most.

'If it gets on the sand, you basically just scoop it up with a loader and haul it away. It's really not that big of a deal. Wetlands are a far different thing,' said George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

In Orange Beach, more than 100 boat captains volunteered their vessels to help lay long strands of oil absorbent material designed to prevent floating oil from reaching shore.

'Everybody we've called so far is in,' said Thad Stewart, whose family owns Zeke's Landing Marina."