Oil hits Louisiana's largest seabird nesting area

[G_j]

Source: AP

washingtonpost.com > Nation > Wires

Oil hits Louisiana's largest seabird nesting area

By MATTHEW BROWN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 14, 2010; 11:50 PM

NEW ORLEANS -- Biologists say oil has smeared at least 300-400 pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast - marking a sharp and sudden escalation in wildlife harmed by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The finding underscores that official tallies of birds impacted by the spill could be significantly underestimating the scope of damage.

The government counts only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or found dead, for use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies.

Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said Wednesday that they had spotted the oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island over the past several days. The spit of land lines the Gulf outside the state's coastal marshes. An estimated 10,000 birds nest on the island in Terrebonne Parish.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/14/AR2010071406353.html

[juajen]

1. Paradise Lost! NT

[BrklynLiberal]

2. ohhhnoooo

:cry:

[burrowowl]

3. DANM! DAMN!

:grr:

BP el al to HELL!

[G_j]

4. list of areas where oil was sighted Tues.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/louisiana_authorities_report_o_7.html

Louisiana authorities report oil sightings from Gulf of Mexico spill
Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 6:31 PM

Here is a list, released by Louisiana emergency officials, of areas where oil was sighted Tuesday. The list is not a comprehensive tally of areas affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

[hatrack]

5. Oh, and btw - the slick has reached Yucatan

[G_j]

6. wow

:-(

[Baclava]

7. Let The River Run Through It: Harnessing the Mississippi to Save Louisiana's Wetlands from the Oil

makes sense to me - that's probably why they'll never use it.


http://blogs.edf.org/restorationandresilience/2010/07/14/let-the-river-run-through-it-harnessing-the-mississippi-to-save-louisianas-wetlands-from-the-oil-spill/


With crude continuing to float into coastal marshes, area residents have been left wondering how oil will be prevented from destroying the wetlands that they call home.

Engineers, energy companies, and the government have proposed a veritable suite of mitigation techniques, from booms to berms to rock dikes, but none has yet emerged as an effective, sustainable, and economically sound solution. Indeed, unfinished artificial islands constructed to shield the coast from the oil spill have already begun crumbling into the Gulf of Mexico.

Several prominent coastal scientists have advocated harnessing the Mississippi River for this purpose. In a memo sent earlier this summer to the EPA Tech Team, Dr. Paul Kemp, a scientist at the National Audubon Society, outlined this method of preventing oil encroachment in Louisiana’s coastal region. Kemp suggested that, at least temporarily, active management of existing US Army Corp of Engineers structures at Old River could allow the flow of the Mississippi to force oil away from the Pelican State’s wetlands.

In its current state, the Mississippi is a complex man-made water management system that prevents flooding in cities like New Orleans that line its banks. However, experts like Kemp believe that a shift in tributary streams would allow a more "robust" flow. This would keep the oil at bay and buy time for cleanup crews struggling to contain the mess, while still preventing flooding in the low-lying communities if managed correctly by river engineers.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, G_j.

[TEXASYANKEE]

9. Fall migration

Fall migration is just starting. So millions upon millions of birds will be coming to the gulf coast. Some use it as their wintering grounds, others move on to South/Central America. Most will meet a grizzly, oil death. Think we'll hear about that on the news?

[G_j]

10. we barely heard about this... nt