Gulf oil spill: Wildlife officials predict widespread impact on birds, food web ("unprecedented")

[jpak]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-officials-predict-widespread-impact-on-birds-food-web-.html

Biologists and other wildlife experts said Friday that the Gulf of Mexico oil leak was an "unprecedented" event in terms of its potential impact on animals and habitats, and warned that the absence of oil-slicked birds in large numbers doesn't mean that the impact won't be severe.

"We have seen some wildlife that have been impacted -- oiled birds, for example," said Ralph Morganweck, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service senior scientist. "But no one should believe that because we haven't recovered thousands of oiled wildlife to date that the impact may not be widespread."

Morganweck was one of a number of federal wildlife officials who spoke at a Friday news conference about the unknowns that scientists are facing. For one, much of the wildlife that will die will do so far from shore, never washing up and never being accounted for.

Additionally, they said, most studies of the effect of oil on wildlife has focused on tanker spills, like the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 off the coast of Alaska. This release of oil has not abated and is flowing from a source that is a mile underwater and about 50 miles from land.

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[LakeSamish706]

1. Hey, don't be interrupting the Presidents dinner with this shit ok.... What the hell

is with you anyway? :sarcasm:

A few marine creatures might die, hey that's nothing, when you compare it to the BP oil company!

[Name removed]

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