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Wildlife groups tried to nurse the birds back to health


CORPUS CHRISTI — Four birds rescued from an oil spill near Ingleside died Sunday despite wildlife groups’ best effort to nurse the birds back to health.

The birds were found covered in oil following a Feb. 9 spill that sent more than 8,000 gallons of crude into wetlands at the former Falcon Refinery.

The birds were taken to the University of Texas Marine Science Institute where more than two dozen people worked together to keep the animals alive, said Guy Davis, an employee at the institute’s Animal Rehabilitation Keep in Port Aransas.

“The birds were contaminated with a very, very toxic crude,” Davis said. “There was a valiant effort made, but we just couldn’t keep them alive.”

The birds were waterfowl, including two coot, a northern shoveler and a double-crested cormorant, Davis said. The birds were given a number of baths last weekend and were resting under heat lamps to keep their body temperatures as close to 104 degrees as possible, because their coated feathers prevented them from retaining heat, Davis said.

By Sunday morning, they were dead.

“Everyone here is so sad. We really thought they were over the hump,” Davis said. “It was just a bigger mission than we were capable of handling.”

Davis said a necropsy could be performed to determine the birds’ cause of death. The birds likely ingested some crude oil, which Davis said was extremely potent. The stress of the ordeal also could have weakened the birds, which have to be handled aggressively during the washing process.

Of the original 8,400 gallons of oil believed to have spilled into freshwater, about 1,050 gallons still remain, said Jimmy Martinez, regional director for the Texas General Land Office.

He expects the cleanup’s emergency portion to end Tuesday and begin the environmental remediation stage.

“We were doing everything we could to keep the oil from entering coastal waters, and now that threat is essentially removed,” Martinez said.

The oil leaked from at least two locations in large storage tanks last week causing about 1 million gallons of oil to spill. Most of the oil has been recovered and is being stored elsewhere, Martinez said. Superior Crude Inc. was leasing the former Falcon Refinery to store the crude, he said.

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