The ongoing oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is largely a wait and see prospect along the Alabama coast at this point.

“The hardest thing for people to do is sit and wait,” said Paul Ware this week. He is president of Wolf Bay Watershed Watch, the local citizens’ advocacy organization whose goal is to protect and preserve the Wolf Bay watershed.

The oil looming offshore from the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that burned in April makes the waiting game even harder no doubt for WBWW due to its role in getting Wolf Bay named an “Outstanding Alabama Water” a couple of years ago.

“We’re very concerned,” Ware said of the prospect of the oil making its way to the Alabama coastline and into bays and estuaries.

“On a local basis, we have some of the same concerns as those to the west of us.”

Because waiting on the oil is such an anxious proposition, Ware said his group decided to go ahead with its bay cleanup earlier this month. It gave WBWW members and volunteers something to do, and Ware called the results “pretty good.”

The bay cleanup notwithstanding, Ware said WBWW is marshaling its energies in other ways as well in light of the oil spill crisis.

The group’s water monitoring is being done twice a month now instead of once a month south of Baldwin County Road 20. Also, WBWW members have been around the perimeter of Wolf Bay and into some of its tributaries taking photos of what is considered some of the more critical habitats. Those will be catalogued and a “before” record will be established should the oil make its way into the bay.

WBWW has also updated its Web site and is directing inquiries concerning volunteering and other oil-related issues to it, Ware said.

“We’re trying to keep our membership informed,” he said.

WBWW is also looking into purchasing additional testing gear that could be used to detect trace amounts of petroleum.

“Everyone is anxious,” Ware said. “We have had a lot of inquiries from around the country and some international.”

Ware expressed a sentiment that is held across the northern Gulf area: “We certainly are hopeful it doesn’t come here.”