She is dressed in a T-shirt - $7.99 for anyone who cares to buy one - that bears the primitive drawing of a line of offshore wind turbines, an oil platform, and the words "Windmills Don't Leak."
Whether the dozen or so tourists aboard the 40-foot vessel already revered the Jersey Shore environment or were converted during the two-hour Salt Marsh Safari, it was clear by outing's end that Powell was preaching to the choir. References by passengers to the Gulf Coast disaster were frequent.
"We don't know what the effects of it are going to be in years to come. That's the scary part," said Powell, 59, who has spent her entire life on the waters off Cape May County, boating, fishing, and now making a living running her tours three times a day from April to November out of the Dolphin Cove Marina here and the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor.
Cape May County locales such as Stone Harbor and Cape May have long been attractive to birders and other outdoors enthusiasts and environmentalists. But less obvious places, such as Wildwood Crest's rustic back-bay salt marsh, have recently joined the growing list of destinations for visitors who want to see nature up close.
"The marsh is just as beautiful here as it is in, say, Cape May. It's like this up and down the entire coast," said Powell as her boyfriend, Ed Garrison, 51, steered the pontoon gently toward a nest of laughing gull chicks, getting so close you could see how the light breeze tugged on their tiny, downy feathers. "People are becoming more aware of [the marsh's] simple beauty and its importance to the environment, and they want to get and out see it."
