Gulf Oil spill - maps

[Bobbie Ireland]

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

[Donna]

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.

[MAK]

    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!   

[Bobbie Ireland]

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.

[Bobbie Ireland]

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.

[BaerbelW]

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

[Caitie]

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

These pictures are just heartbreaking. They should fine the oil company up the gazoo . And I heard they've decided to drill offshore NJ, FL and AK for oil. God I hope not! Hopefully this will be a lesson but I doubt it. They never learn

[jeanne]

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 

[Donna]

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

[Donna]

 (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.

[MAK]

    

[Bobbie Ireland]

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.

[Donna]

  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! 

[Bobbie Ireland]

  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.

[Bird Crazy]

 first I want to


then I want to