Rfalconcam Forum

A long one, this, so it's better to give the link, esp for the maps which show the spread.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10093904.stm

What one does, I just don't know. Devastating for everyone and everything.

Bobbie

They are comparing this as "WORSE" than Katrina. Already birds are being rescued covered in the crude oil. Then I hear on the news that BP didn't want to spend 500,000 on the cap that could have prevented this.."IT WAS TOO MUCH $$". Other countries spent for  the cap..Brazil and a few others but not the US. 500,000 has caused BILLIONS....go figure. It breaks my heart knowing what's to come with that oil slick. I was up most of the night watching CNN....between the oil and Aliens taking over the world...were pretty much doomed. (So they say). Not to mention the 11 lives that were lost in the rig explosion.  :( I don't think it's Nature that will destroy the world, it's human error.

 :(   I have to agree with you Donna. Humans are so smart they're dumb!  It's really frightening what we're doing to planet earth!    :aaarggh:

This quote from the BBC today:

"BP's chief executive Tony Hayward is flying to Louisiana later to personally oversee the emergency clean-up operation."

So. There we are. Did it take him a week or more to find a mop and a bucket?? They should haul his sorry butt out to the wetlands to have a look at the effect this is having on breeding species. Not to mention the human misery. Make you want to drive right past BP petrol stations???

B.

Good piece and various links in The New York Times today...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper

Bobbie

Apropos... from a very small experience in a very small spill off Ireland's east coast (no oil spill is ever small, of course) long ago, most experts agreed that trying to clean and rehabilitate injured wildlife was next to impossible. Perhaps there are better methods now, but as birds try to preen away the oil, I think they only succeed in ingesting even more. I can't even look at the otters... and I did not recognise the gannet, so black were its feathers.

A picture says more than a thousand words - how much do these 32 pictures have to say?

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/oil_spill_approaches_louisiana.html

Baerbel

I don't know how they could have so misjudged the impact of that explosion.  And the loss of life and potential loss to wildlife is so devastating  :(

He has not been given a name, just a green tag that denotes him as Number One. Though he resides alone for now, there are thousands more green tags ready and waiting for those who will surely come to join him.

Bewildered, hungry and still a little sticky, the first bird plucked from the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has become the face of the disaster, a feathered icon with the power to sway political agendas and corporate fortunes, and command media attention like a Hollywood celebrity.

The northern gannet in question was rescued close to the spot where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and collapsed nearly two weeks ago, this catastrophe’s ground zero. He is now residing in a hangar in Fort Jackson, Louisiana, that has been converted into a bird hospital at BP’s expense, ready to receive an influx. “He is representative of the spill. He is going to be the symbol. He has a unique story,” said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Centre (IBRRC) in California, who is heading the rescue facility.

The bird was initially plucked to safety by the crew of a field operation boat dealing with the aftermath of the rig explosion. Smothered in oil, which is poisonous when ingested and strips birds of their insulation, he swam to the vessel and hopped on to a pole that they held out for him.
“This bird is lucky, he found a boat. He would have drowned otherwise, he would have been dead in an hour,” said Mr Holcomb, as he introduced the lone gannet to a throng of 60-plus media representatives. “He is good as gannets can be,” he said, adding after a pause: “And they’re mean.”

The hospital is staffed by experts from the IBRRC and from Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, specialists in cleaning birds of contaminants. They will give each casualty that is brought here a full physical, blood tests, nourishment in the form of protein shakes and fish, and plenty of rest before subjecting them to a series of dunkings in detergent.

Efforts are continuing to protect 34,000 birds on the barrier islands that sit to the east of this spot, using booms to keep the oil away from them and their nests and chicks. But water may wash over the booms, driven by high winds and spring tides. The hospital staff expect to see as many as 30 species, and face unique difficulties with the birds’ rehabilitation that they are still trying to resolve. “Usually in an oil spill situation we can determine how long it will take to clean up the environment and hold the birds until it is safe to release them. With this spill, it is still ongoing and getting worse, so release is complicated. You do not want them to get oiled again and come back, but you also cannot tell a bird ‘Go and live on the west coast’.”

The leak involves light, sweet crude, which is thinner than the heavy, highly viscous oil involved in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, and can therefore appear less dramatic. Yet its environmental implications are as devastating.

While larger ocean dwellers such as whales, turtles and bluefin tuna can sense trouble and may be able to flee, smaller life forms such as plankton and smaller fish will be engulfed. Because they are eaten by other creatures, the poisonous oil enters the food chain.

Bob Thomas, of the Centre for Environmental Communication at Loyola University in New Orleans, said: “Worst-case scenarios almost never happen. In this case, almost everybody I have known with technical knowledge of oil spills, people who have worked in the industry 30, 40 years, well, they say this is the worst-case scenario . . . it is upon us. I never feel comfortable being Chicken Little, but I have looked at this every way I can and I have at this point at least mild despair, if not sinking depression.”

He added: “When people see a picture of an oiled bird, they gasp. Well, just think about that oil well — that sucker is spewing right now, 24/7. They can go out there all they want to and collect the oil, but it’s still coming out the ground. There’s not an end in sight.”

Rescue boats cannot easily scour the area for stricken birds and animals because of rough weather, limited accessibility and safety considerations.

Professor Thomas added: “There’s all this wildlife out there that you don’t see on land and they’ve been dealing with this leak since April 20, so what’s happening to it? I can imagine, but I don’t want to.” He added: “BP would be really stupid if they weren’t pursuing this recovery at warp speed.”

Tom MacKenzie, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said: “This has the potential for being devastating for the wildlife but there are many factors that may influence that; the tides, the currents, the winds. But we can’t boom the entire coast. If the oil continues to come in as projected, we expect it to hit the booms — we hope they hold.”

A northern gannet bird is hydrated by members of Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research

 (April 29) -- With oil from a destroyed rig gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at an estimated rate of 210,000 gallons per day, the effects on wildlife will almost certainly be profound.

The April 20 explosion of a BP rig killed 11 people and eventually led to the platform's sinking about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. But now the ensuing spill threatens 445 species of fish, 45 species of mammals, 32 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 134 species of birds, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries told AOL News. And when the massive oil slick makes landfall in Louisiana on Friday, it will hit 10 wildlife refuges or management areas, such as the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

"The challenge with this type of oil is it's going to float, and, depending on what the wind and waves do, it may stick around for a while," National Oceanic Atmospheric Association spokesman Tom Brosnan said at a news conference today. "And as you get closer to the shorelines, you tend to find richer life."

Bottlenose dolphins may come into contact with floating oil from the Gulf spill when they surface for air.

Here then, is a small sampling of animals that will be affected as the oil continues to spread.

Sea Creatures

Already a critically endangered species, the bluefin tuna comes to the Gulf of Mexico between April and June in order to spawn. Its eggs' viability would be plummet upon coming into contact with oil.

Mammals that must surface for air, such as the bottlenose dolphin and the sperm whale, are likely to encounter patches of floating oil in the process.

Bivalves like oysters will be especially sensitive to the spill. "Mainly that's because they can't move," Karen Foote, a marine biologist at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, told AOL News.

Known as a "sea cow," the endangered West Indian manatee migrates along the Gulf Coast in search of warm water. Eating sea grass and other plants it finds in the shallows, the mammal may find its food sources contaminated when oil reaches the shoreline.

Like other endangered species, the West Indian Manatee may see its food supply dwindle when the spill reaches the Gulf shoreline.

The Gulf manhaden represents the third largest fishery in the United States. Because it is a filter feeder -- meaning it circulates water through its system in order to strain out food -- the oil poses a severe threat to its health, and also to the fish oil business it supports, the Telegraph reported.

Land Creatures

Several bird species frequent the gulf region, some stopping to lay eggs and others simply to feed. Along the Louisiana shoreline, for instance, 5 million migratory birds stop and nest in the network of coastal marshes each year. According to LiveScience, when oil coats a bird's feathers it is no longer able to repel water or trap air, resulting in the bird's death by hypothermia.

Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican, is no longer on the endangered species list but has just begun its nesting season on the barrier islands.

As many as 96 species of migratory songbirds, such as warblers, buntings and swallows, make stops along the gulf shore on their annual journey from the United States to Central and South America,
The brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, lays its eggs on the barrier islands where the oil spill is scheduled to arrive first.

Beach nesting birds, such as royal terns, sandpipers and snowy plovers, will be negatively impacted as tar balls begin rolling in.

Shore birds like the reddish egret, whose population is already in decline, rely on catching small fish in the shallows, the New York Times reported. If those fish don't survive as the oil advances, it's unlikely the egret will, either.

Reptiles

Both endangered species, the loggerhead turtle and the Kemp's ridley turtle come to the gulf to feed beginning in May, and lay their eggs along the coast's beaches.

In addition, the endangered diamondback terrapin, which is found in the marshes of Alabama, may see its food supply compromised when the oil slick washes ashore, Al.com reported.

Even the alligator, an animal that is not now in danger of extinction, may encounter a steep decline in the fish it feeds on in the brackish estuaries that border the gulf.

 :(   :crying:

This brings to mind something that so often happens when I have watched a wildlife programme... splendid locations, amazing creatures and habitats, so much to learn, so much to see. Then suddenly, the narrator says: "But..."

And this, I know, is the time for me for switch off. Because I know I am now going to hear something I do not want to hear... and about which I can do absolutely nothing.

Orang-utan conservation? We will now look at the loss of the forests so big business can plant palm trees for palm oil. Atlantic salmon? We will now see how river pollution and illegal drift nets are stopping them from reaching the rivers of their birth to spawn. Recovery in raptor numbers? We will now hear about the re-introduction of DDT...

You name the species or the habitat - I can give you the "But..."

Meanwhile... what can I do? No herbicides or pesticides in my garden? Leave the wild bit alone in case a hedgehog wanders in...?

So small. So sad.

B.

  MISSISSIPPI - A dead sea turtle lies on the beach in Pass Christian. Researchers from the Institute of Marine Mammal Sciences from Gulfport, Miss., collected a number of dead turtles and will examine them to determine the cause of death.  Gee, I wonder!  :(

Cause of death? Greed. Stupidity.

B.

 first I want to :'(


then I want to  :viking:

http://postpix.palmbeachpost.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=991197&CategoryID=50973&ListSubAlbums=0 (http://postpix.palmbeachpost.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=991197&CategoryID=50973&ListSubAlbums=0)   :(

I can't even look at the poor wildlife. I'm so  :frustrated:  and  :tickedoff:

Oil from the recent spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached the shores of the Chandeleur Islands, marking the first assault on a network of Important Bird Areas that line the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to south Florida.
 
“Rusty streaks of crude could be seen closing in on the Chandeleur Islands and small, dark patches of oily sheen lapped ashore,” reported the Telegraph earlier today. A fleet of 22 boats, comprising 10 official vessels and 12 shrimp trawlers, was dispatched to skim the surface of the slick near the islands, put down protective booms, and drop dispersant chemicals into the oil, according to the report.
 
“This is another sad milestone in a disaster unfolding in slow motion,” said Frank Gill, interim president of the National Audubon Society, in a recent press release. “This massive oil slick is churning around in the Gulf and emulsifying into a thick, deadly ‘mousse’ that will extinguish life and destroy habitats.”
 
Located 60 miles from New Orleans at Louisiana’s eastern boundary, the uninhabited Chandeleur Islands in the parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemine are part of Breton National Wildlife Refuge, the nation’s second oldest refuge and home to an estimated 34,000 birds. Designated as an IBA—that is, a site recognized by Audubon and Birdlife International as essential for the survival of one or more birds species—the Chandeleurs and greater Breton National Wildlife Refuge are a haven to an avian medley that includes waterfowl, wading birds, marsh birds, shorebirds, and neotropical species that touch down during their migrations.
 
Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican, nests in this IBA, and its breeding season has only just begun. Removed last year from the endangered species list, the bird—there are more than 2,000 in Breton National Wildlife Refgure—is still vulnerable, and disruptions to its breeding cycle could have serious effects on the population, according to an Audubon press release.
 
Back in 2005, Hurricane Katrina dealt a blow to the Chandeleur Islands (Breton National Wildlife Refuge) IBA, reducing the land area by about 80 percent. What remains is susceptible to accelerated erosion—and now, it appears, to oil.

P&G ships dish liquid to help clean Gulf mammals

By DAN SEWELL (AP) – 2 days ago

CINCINNATI — Procter & Gamble Co. says it has rushed 1,000 bottles of Dawn dishwashing liquid to the Gulf of Mexico region to help clean wildlife soiled by the massive oil spill.

A P&G spokeswoman says a shipment from a Kansas City plant was delivered by truck Saturday and another 1,000 bottles are being readied.

Wildlife rescue workers have used Dawn for more than three decades.

Cincinnati-based P&G has ongoing partnerships with the International Bird Rescue Research Center and the Marine Mammal Center to provide Dawn and raise funds.

In honor of Earth Day in April, before the severity of the Gulf spill was recognized, P&G stepped up airing a television commercial tied to fundraising for bird rescue efforts.

PLAQUEMINES PARISH, LA (WAFB) - Another wildlife victim was rescued off the Louisiana coast. A brown pelican was found Monday on Storm Island, just east of Venice. The pelican was covered in oil.

The bird is being cared for and fed by Tri-State Bird Rescue. The group has set up shop at Fort Jackson in Plaquemines Parish to handle this type of situation.

"If birds are oiled on their bellies and they take it to their nest it can get on eggs and kill the eggs or the young," said Jay Holcomb with the Bird Rescue Research Center.

Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caution that thousands of wildlife are in danger from the oil spewing into the Gulf.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/photogalleries/100506-nation-animals-oil-spill-gulf-pictures/#gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-threatened-least-tern_19950_600x450.jpg (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/photogalleries/100506-nation-animals-oil-spill-gulf-pictures/#gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-threatened-least-tern_19950_600x450.jpg)  story and pics here

 :no: :aaarggh:

Yesterday we travelled by boat to Breton Island, one of several barrier islands in the Breton National Wildlife Refuge.  Oil booms surround this tiny island, in hopes of keeping the looming oil spill at bay.  And for good reason.

Breton Island provides habitat for an incredible diversity of birds, including migratory songbirds, seabirds, nesting wading birds, shorebirds and waterfowl. At least 23 species are regularly found here and 13 of those species, such as brown pelicans, laughing gulls, and terns, regularly nest on the various islands in the refuge. It is home to the largest tern colony in North America. Many of these species, including the pelicans and terns, are beginning or are at the height of their nesting seasons.

You can see many of these birds in this footage we captured on May 5th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOUJ8Qp-H2Y&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOUJ8Qp-H2Y&feature=player_embedded)  Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-SLknqo5ok&feature=PlayList&p=99D80C24103F7940&playnext_from=PL&index=0 Oil slick video  horrible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRlK3iUyLx8&feature=channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRlK3iUyLx8&feature=channel)  Dolphins swimming in oil slick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4I1a5vg3w&feature=player_embedded#! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4I1a5vg3w&feature=player_embedded#!)   BP (NYSE:BP) has released footage of their remote operating vehicle (ROV) successfully capping one of the three leaks that is pouring an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the waters off the Gulf of Mexico.

I just couldn't watch all of the last video....it's awful.  :crying:

 :crying: :'( :(

Poor animals......I feel awful for them! It's just going to get worse.  :(

 :crying:  :(

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — He had the misfortune of being the first seabird found coated in toxic oil from the huge Gulf of Mexico spill, yet rescuers nicknamed him "Lucky."

On Monday, the male Northern Gannet will live up to his nickname, when wildlife officials who rehabilitated him release the young bird, along with a rescued brown pelican which had also been coated in a black sheen, back into the wild -- and out of reach of the unfolding disaster.

The gannet, a long-beaked bird known to dive from high altitude into the sea to catch its prey, was found in the gulf April 27 near the site where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank after a huge explosion and fire set off one of the worst oil spills in US history.

Lucky was about 80 percent covered in oil, giving an orange appearance to the normally white bird with a yellow crest. Experts at the Bird Rehabilitation Facility at Ft. Jackson, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, gave him their full attention.

"He was thin and dehydrated, so wildlife veterinarian Dr. Erica Miller gave him intravenous fluids several times, as well as oral fluids and Pepto-Bismol for oil he may have ingested," officials coordinating the oil spill response said in a statement.

The pelican received similar treatment after he was found May 3 on Stone Island, a barrier island just off the Louisiana coast. After being shuttled to the Ft. Jackson facility by helicopter, he was treated with IV fluids, hand-fed fish, and scrubbed of the sheen covering his body, which allowed his natural water-proofing to return.

He was released to an outside pool where he has been gaining weight, the officials said in a statement.

With BP struggling to get the huge spill under control, leaving hundreds of species of animals threatened, the announcement of the bird releases came as one of the few pieces of good news in an environmental tragedy growing steadily worse, with an estimated 210,000 gallons of crude spewing into the gulf each day.

The brown pelicans are of particular concern because they were just removed from the endangered species list last year.

The two birds will be released Monday in Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, site of the Indian River Lagoon which is described as the most biologically diverse estuary in the United States.

Media helicopters force Gulf birds to abandon nests

Birds in the Gulf of Mexico have a new enemy: the press. Media aircraft have been conducting illegal flights and disturbing birds over Breton National Wildlife Refuge, an Important Bird Area off the east coast of Louisiana where oil from the leaking BP wellhead has been washing ashore.
 
“We’ve done all this work to try and protect those islands with booms,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Chuck Underwood. “But in the end, folks flying in low and landing just to get their photographs has been disturbing the birds. In some cases, there has even been nest abandonment.”
 
Tens of thousands of birds are presently nesting and foraging on the sandy strips and marshy spits in Breton National Wildlife Refuge, making this an especially devastating time for an oil spill. Michael Seymour, an ornithologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries flew on a sanctioned flight over the refuge Thursday and noticed black skimmers, laughing gulls, sandwich terns and about a dozen brown pelicans, loafing in the sand, just paces from a slick of oil.

Brown pelicans, large graceful birds that can live for 40 years, were nearly driven extinct by the pesticide DDT in the 1960s. Just last year they were removed from the endangered species list. On Breton Island, there are presently more than 2,500 nesting brown pelicans. And if you have seen photos of them over the past few days, chances are the images were taken illegally, and put the birds in jeopardy.
 
Federal regulation prohibits “the unauthorized operation of aircraft...at altitudes resulting in harassment of wildlife, or the unauthorized landing or take-off on a national wildlife refuge.” On Friday, the refuge was closed because oil was found to be washing ashore, creating a health hazard for both animals and people. “Combine the health and human safety issues with the helicopters coming in and we have a serious problem,” said Underwood.
 
“We know it’s a great story,” added Underwood, specifically addressing journalists, “but back off a little bit here.”

Media helicopters are disturbing brown pelicans in the Gulf.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Biloxi
Crews were expected to spend much of the weekend assembling a mile-long pipe system leading to an underwater containment dome that by Monday could start catching the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico in a swirl of contamination.

The metal containment device, which resembles a 4-story, boxy version of the "Wizard of Oz" Tin Man, was being lowered gently Friday into position over the main leak feeding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Placing the dome is the first step in a laborious process that could easily go awry. "This is going to take a few days … and it may or may not work," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry.


If it does work, the dome won't shut down the fountain of crude spurting from a broken pipe on the muddy gulf floor. "This is not the final solution," Landry said. But it could capture most of the oil and funnel it 5,000 feet upward to a waiting ship.

While BP moves ahead with the containment strategy, the company is also plotting how to plug the blown-out wellhead that has spewed an estimated 3 million gallons of oil since a deadly April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig.

"We're going to continue to look for every option we can find," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.

The company has flown in 20 experts from around the world and is even reviewing suggestions from a public call-in line.

Suttles said BP has discarded some ideas for stopping the oil gusher and is now evaluating two other options. One would involve installing a new blowout preventer device over the one that failed.

The other strategy would be as simple as stuffing the broken preventer with rubber cuttings, rather like stopping up a toilet.

A company spokesman declined to comment Friday night on an Associated Press report that said rig workers have told BP investigators that the blowout was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column.

According to the AP, company interviews with the rig crew indicate that as workers released pressure from the drilling column and introduced heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead, a chemical reaction created a gas bubble and the cement around the pipe destabilized.

Industry experts have said that natural gas mixed with oil may have leaked up the long drilling pipe, expanding as it rose and then exploding with a spark at the surface.

Good weather in recent days has allowed cleanup teams to continue to skim and burn oil on the water's surface. "We are very thankful for the weather," Landry said. Crews have conducted at least four separate burns, sending billowing black clouds of smoke toward the gulf sky and consuming more than 7,000 barrels of oil. Planes dropped more dispersants to break up floating oil.

With the amoeba-like oil slick hovering just off the Louisiana coast and washing up on some barrier islands, Louisiana politicians have complained that not enough booms have been laid to protect their shores. BP officials said more than 150 miles of booms have been deployed where oil is most likely to wash ashore.

"Everyone would like to be able to boom everything. That's not possible," Suttles said.

In other developments, a spokesman for the U.S. Minerals Management Service said 30 deep-water rigs in the gulf have been inspected since the Horizon explosion and the agency has found no cause for concern.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration enlarged the boundaries of its no-fishing zone in federal waters to reflect the growing spill and extended the restrictions to May 17. But the agency said the vast majority of gulf waters remain unaffected by the disaster.

The slick, at times eerily beautiful as it creeps across the gulf in a shifting pattern of mustard and rust, moved west Friday and continued to threaten the shores of the Mississippi Delta, Breton Sound and Chandeleur Sound, according to NOAA.

Three teams were sent to inspect the Chandeleur Islands, where a sheen of oil has washed up, potentially contaminating parts of the second-oldest wildlife refuge in the national system.

"It's breaking my heart, and the smell of this water is making me nauseous," said Linda St. Martin, a Sierra Club policy consultant, as she bobbed in a boat near the barrier chain, a nesting spot for thousands of brown pelicans.

Oil first made landfall on the crescent-shaped chain Wednesday. By Friday morning, the effects were evident in lapping oil and a distinct lack of birds, said Capt. Mark Stebly, a fishing guide who has lived on one of the islands for 25 years.

The refuge is a breeding ground for thousands of birds, including brown pelicans. Hundreds of frigate birds — large dark seabirds with the longest wingspan, in proportion to their weight, of all birds — roost in the mangroves .

"It's a terrible, disgusting reddish-brown scum floating around my boat," Stebly said in a telephone interview. "It's gathering in the shallows where horseshoe crabs are breeding."

"Almost all the birds got the hell out of there; the only birds left on the island have nests," he said. "It's like a damn Twilight Zone scene."

 :crying:    :aaarggh:

Media helicopters force Gulf birds to abandon nests

Come ON, people!!! I swear, you would have to wonder...

no you don't have to wonder, just read the stuff they publish as news most of them are ignorant morons.  :stupid:

 :clap: :thumbsup: :2thumbsup:  so true!

Black whitecaps and birds that scream Exxon Valdez.

Up to now, the oil spill in the Gulf -- with the exception of photos of discolored water -- has been mostly abstract. With the disaster finally making itself seen, however, expect the visual media to assume a much larger role now, with a corresponding gut punch to the American public and the political powers that be.




-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Efforts to rescue wildlife continue as concerns intensify about the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf Coast's ecosystem. A team of eight specialists from the International Bird Rescue Research Center is combing the outer-islands of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana today after four days of bad weather hampered efforts.
"Now we have a window of time and we are going to try to get out there and catch up," Jay Holcomb, executive director at IBRRC, tells  Green House.

"It really has the potential to affect the food chain," he says. "How bad it will be, I cannot even estimate, because it is impossible to do that."

Two seabirds-- a pelican and gannet-- are in good condition after being rescued by IBRRC and Tri-State Bird Rescue Research. The organizations set up three rehabilitation facilities in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Few animal casualties have been reported, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the New York Times that its planes spotted dolphins and turtles in areas covered by oil.

    Biologists are increasingly alarmed for wildlife offshore, where the damage from the spill can be invisible but still deadly. And they caution that because of the fluidity between onshore and offshore marine communities, the harm taking place deep at sea will come back to haunt the shallows, whether or not they are directly hit by the slick

Up to 20 National Wildlife Refuges could be affected by the oil spill, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service . Responders are preparing to conduct a controlled burn today with no anticipated impacts on marine mammals and sea turtles, according to the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center.

Procter & Gamble sent 1,000 bottles of Dawn dish washing soap to the Gulf of Mexico area to help clean wildlife, the Associated Press reported. The company is also providing updates on efforts via Facebook.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/05/05/am.mattingly.oil.wildlife.cnn (http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/05/05/am.mattingly.oil.wildlife.cnn) video: so horrific. Why didn't they rescue that Sea Turtle??? In my opinion, if they are so concerned about Wildlife, they could have rescued it.  :(

My neighbor is in Louisiana, helping to put out boom lines, plotting where to put them and such (he's some kind of crew chief).  Anyway, he told his wife this week about the news helicopter buzzing the island where a bunch of Brown Pelicans were nesting.  The birds scattered, and then the seagulls moved in to snatch the eggs.  Wildlife, fish, and plants are going to have a hard enough time surviving the oil - they don't need the added disturbances from news slugs.

Debbie in Texas

Yes, I posted an article about that the other day:

Media helicopters force Gulf birds to abandon nests

Birds in the Gulf of Mexico have a new enemy: the press. Media aircraft have been conducting illegal flights and disturbing birds over Breton National Wildlife Refuge, an Important Bird Area off the east coast of Louisiana where oil from the leaking BP wellhead has been washing ashore.

 :clap: for your neighbor!  I know they are asking for hair clippings from Beauty parlors to fill the booms. So far, 50 states and Canada have donated all their clippings to help out. They say the booms are made of a mesh and they can use hair to fill them as hair absorbs oils. So why not.

An oily brown pelican has been found on a bayou two hours south of New Orleans, officials said Friday.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries found an oily pelican on the rocks Thursday at Sand Dollar Marina on Grand Isle. The brown pelican is Louisiana’s state bird and was removed from the endangered species list in November of 2009.
Twenty birds have been brought to Fort Jackson for rehabilitation since the beginning of the spill. Five had been in oil and needed treatment, and two have been released. One was released this morning after being washed and held in an outdoor cage as it was rehabilitated. The bird grew from 6.3 ounces to 7.8 ounces as it was being held.

Also on Thursday, shoreline cleanup assessment teams found large tar balls, up to 8 inches in diameter, along Fourchon beach in Southern Louisiana. Tar balls were also found on the banks of Belle Pass and Elmer’s Island. Authorities are also testing tar balls found along barrier islands in Mississippi but have not yet confirmed that they are from the spill.

A German biologist says that efforts to clean oil-drenched birds in the Gulf of Mexico are in vain. For the birds' sake, it would be faster and less painful if animal-rescue workers put them under, she says. Studies and other experts back her up.

"Kill, don't clean," is the recommendation of a German animal biologist, who this week said that massive efforts to clean oil-soaked birds in Gulf of Mexico won't do much to stop a near certain and painful death for the creatures.

Despite the short-term success in cleaning the birds and releasing them back into the wild, few, if any, have a chance of surviving, says Silvia Gaus, a biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

"According to serious studies, the middle-term survival rate of oil-soaked birds is under 1 percent," Gaus says. "We, therefore, oppose cleaning birds."

The oil spill -- which continues to pump more than 200,000 gallons (755,000 liters) of crude into the Gulf each day -- was caused by an April 20 explosion on a BP-operated oil rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

In the path of the spill are several large protected areas for wildlife, including a vital nesting area for thousands of brown pelicans which were only removed from the US Endangered Species Program last year. Louisiana's Breton National Wildlife Refuge is by itself home to 34,000 birds. So far, the vast oil slick has yet to make significant landfall, limiting the numbers of birds affected, but observers worry that it is only a matter of time before beaches along America's Gulf Coast become blackened.

Birds Will Eventually Perish from Long-Term Causes

Catching and cleaning oil-soaked birds oftentimes leads to fatal amounts of stress for the animals, Gaus says. Furthermore, forcing the birds to ingest coal solutions -- or Pepto Bismol, as animal-rescue workers are doing along the Gulf Coast -- in an attempt to prevent the poisonous effects of the oil is ineffective, Gaus says. The birds will eventually perish anyway from kidney and liver damage.

Gaus speaks from 20 years of experience, and she worked on the environmental cleanup of the Pallas -- a wood-carrying cargo ship that spilled 90 tons of oil in the North Sea after running aground in October of 1998. Around 13,000 birds drown, froze or expired due to stress as a result of the Pallas spill.

Once covered in oil, a bird will use its bill and tongue to remove the toxic substance from their feathers. Despite oil's terrible taste and smell, a bird will still try and clean itself because it can't live without fluffy feathers that repel water and regulate its body temperature. "Their instinct to clean is greater than their instinct to hunt, and as long as their feathers are dirty with oil, they won't eat," Gaus says.

Kill Them 'Quickly and Painlessly'

But it's the instinct of biologists, who often feel compelled to save the birds out of duty and ethical reasons, that will ultimately lead a bird to a worse death, say some. It would be better to let the birds die in peace, Gaus says, or kill them "quickly and painlessly."

Even dyed-in-the-wool preservationists from the WWF agree with Gaus. At the time of the 2002 Prestige oil spill off the coast of Spain, a spokesman from the organization said: "Birds, those that have been covered in oil and can still be caught, can no longer be helped. … Therefore, the World Wildlife Fund is very reluctant to recommend cleaning."

The Prestige spill killed 250,000 birds. Of the thousands that were cleaned, most died within a few days, and only 600 lived and were able to be released into the wild. According to a British study of the spill, the median lifespan of a bird that was cleaned and released was only seven days.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke
/fotostrecke-54615.html (http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-54615.html)  Slideshow