A year ago yesterday, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 and sending 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into open water. And Madrid-born, West Seattle photographer Daniel Beltrá was there to document it.

On assignment for Greenpeace, the international conservation photographer took to the skies in a Cessna just two weeks after the explosion, snapping photos from 3,000 feet as the oil started seeping across the Gulf. There’s a painterly quality to his images—a contrast of cerulean and orange (the sheen of the crude) with relief wells and boats parked right in the middle of the mess. Each image is stunning in its beauty, and incredibly sad—particularly a shot of eight pelicans coated in oil, huddled against the back of a plywood box awaiting a wash at the International Bird Rescue and Research Center in Ft. Jackson, Louisiana.

Sixteen of Beltrá’s photos, titled Spill, are on display at the Seattle Aquarium through August 7, and the timing couldn’t be better (Friday is also Earth Day). It’s an ongoing disaster, Beltrá says. He notes the 6,000 birds found dead ("How many weren’t found?") and the rising death toll of dolphins in the Gulf: 200 since January 1, 2011. There may be another trip to the Gulf in his future.

Spill is on display thru Aug 7 at Seattle Aquarium.