Demonstrating just how erratic and intense the massive Gulf oil spill can be, tar balls and small sheens of oil have made their entry into Lake Pontchartrain and are hitting Texas shores for the foremost time.

John Lopez, Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation's coastal stainability program, could spot the first tar balls in the Rigolets Pass on Sunday.

By Monday, the splotches of oil had washed on shore, as far west as Treasure Isle in Slidell.

Crews responsible for the cleanup, made use of nets to gather up the tar balls all through the day, collecting no less than 1,000 pounds of oil and waste.

BP as well positioned 19 manual skimming vessels and four decontamination vessels in the region, and placed 600-feet of hard and soft boom at a choke point in the Rigolets, so as to avert more oil from flowing in the lake.

Lopez said that oil entered into the lake due to winds from the far edges of Hurricane Alex, in the preceding week, as well as continued east and southeast winds during the weekend.

The winds from Alex pulled along a large quantity of oil into the Mississippi Sound for the foremost time, and the east winds during the preceding few days took along oil into Lake Borgne, the Rigolets and finally into the eastern stretches of Lake Pontchartrain.