BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Fire [View All]

[G_j]

http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1660

BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Spill
June 16th, 2010

A shrimp boat captain in Louisiana hired by BP was blocked from rescuing juvenile Kemp's ridleys that were covered in oil in the Gulf waters. He was captured on video saying that the turtles are being collected in the clean-up efforts and burned up like so much ocean debris with other marine life gathering along tide lines where oil also congregates.

He witnessed BP workers burning turtles caught in the oil booms. Rescue efforts are being ended tomorrow.

STRP's Gulf Director Carole Allen responded to the news by saying "The burning of boom and oil when even one sea turtle was seen in the water is a despicable crime."

STRP's Chris Pincetich has been in communication with both the reporter who shot the interview and the Captain who witnessed the illegal killing of sea turtles, and is making arrangements to ensure that sea turtle rescue efforts are not stopped, and can be performed in areas with boomed oil.

The Los Angeles Times reported on the "Death by Fire" June 17:


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-burnbox-20100617,0,4814068.story


Death by fire in the gulf
So-called burn boxes are torching oil from the water's surface at the sacrifice of turtles, crabs, sea slugs and other sea life.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
June 17, 2010

Reporting from the Gulf of Mexico —
Here on the open ocean, 12 miles from ground zero of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the gulf is hovering between life and death.

The large strands of sargassum seaweed atop the ocean are normally noisy with birds and thick with crustaceans, small fish and sea turtles. But now this is a silent panorama, heavy with the smell of oil.

There are no birds. The seaweed is soaked in rust-colored crude and chemical dispersant. It is devoid of life except for the occasional juvenile sea turtle, speckled with oil and clinging to the only habitat it knows. Thick ribbons of oil spread out through the sea like the strips in egg flower soup, gorgeous and deadly.

..more..

Venice, Louisiana, Boat Captain/ by Catherine Craig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjw3_bMk8o&feature=player_embedded