June 10th, 2010

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
– Robert Lynd

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Every day, the chart changes. Creatures are divided into categories, separated by states, grouped by status and numbers, all highlighted with bright colors.

As of Wednesday, 442 oiled birds have been collected alive on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and 109 “visibly oiled” birds have been found dead. The total number of dead birds found is 633. The cause of death for most is still being studied. Some biologists contend, though, that the birds killed by this disaster is likely in the thousands already, because sea birds will dive into waters thick with oil, drown and never be counted.

So far 40 birds have been cleaned and released, virtually all ballyhooed with happy pictures and videos from the Deepwater Horizon joint task force and others. The media is invited to watch cleaned-up events as birds from Louisiana are released into the still-clean waters off the coast of Florida.

Those moments are uplifting – and necessary — to those working hard to catch and clean the birds. For most of the rest of us, the joy is fleeting.

Unbelievable Losses

It has been 52 days since millions of gallons of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig began to gush a mile below the surface of the gulf.

Eleven men are dead, livelihoods of thousands on the gulf coast are lost, unseen carcasses of fish and marine mammals rest on the ocean floor, an environmental nightmare that will linger for decades – all are incalculable losses.

But it will be the ugly pictures and videos of birds — barely distinguishable, covered in thick oil, virtually immobile, eyes opened wide in what to us looks like fear, shock, confusion, terror – that will become the icons of this disaster.

There is no shortage of volunteers. Hundreds of trained people are at work, tens of thousands of willing citizens stand by, anxious to jump in.  Federal, state, local agencies and conservation and wildlife rehab groups comb the delicate marshland and beaches, look for birds, bring in oiled ones, place them in a production line of cleaning.

Two airplanes with survey crews are flying along the coastline, looking for oiled birds, turtles and mammals. Seventeen beached-bird survey teams walk the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Heavy oil was observed floating near Grand Terre Island in Louisiana on Tuesday.

Today, a dune construction project to protect endangered inhabitants of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama was completed. A bird island near Grand Isle, La., will swarm with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Personnel, trying to catch oiled birds. More absorbent boom material has been spread along the bird nesting islands yesterday, but the oil-drenched original boom is still there – and is oiling the birds who perch on it.

BP announced it would use money from oil sales to restore and protect coastal wildlife – depending on how much oil is recovered, of course, and only after 50 percent of that revenue is distributed to other companies and the government.

But with a dizzying array of threatened and endangered species existing on 35 wildlife refuges along the gulf coast, it may all be drops in a bucket.

The Rescue Effort

Experts from Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, based in Delaware, are in charge of the bird rescue efforts in the gulf. They are joined by the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) from California. The two are the only wildlife rescue groups in the country with the chops to deal with a disaster of this scope. (See a video with Dr. Jay Holcomb, director of the IBRRC, explaining and showing the cleaning of an oiled pelican.)

They, contracted by BP and working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  run the rehabilitation centers set up in four coastal states. Their OSHA-trained rehabilitators, veterinarians and extended response teams train volunteers how to catch, handle, clean and care for damaged birds.

IBRRC director Jay Holcomb has been in the business for more than 40 years, and has been involved with animal rescue and rehabilitation at more than 200 oil spills. He was the bird coordinator during the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.

The birds are greatly affected by an oil spill, he says, because seabirds plunge into the water for the fish they eat, and don’t comprehend the threat. “They don’t see it. To them oil on the water is like foam or kelp. They’re clueless about it; in that sense, they’re vulnerable,” Holcomb explains in the video about the cleaning efforts.

He and others with the center also are blogging about the bird recovery scene in the gulf. In a lengthy post at 4 a.m. Tuesday (after a long day at the Fort Jackson center in Louisiana) he hit the high points of the day, but then turned testy.

“Let’s talk about the blame game real quick before I hit the sack,” he wrote. “This is a big spill with a large oil company, a lot of scrutiny and a lot of people blaming each other. . . . it was just a matter of time until the wildlife rehabilitators get blamed also.”

The blame Holcomb refers to relates to the rehab groups’ relationship with BP. They are hired by the oil company to manage the bird rescue efforts, and some critics have said that compromises their operations.

“Nothing is farther from the truth. We have worked with the oil industry or whoever is the responsible party since 1971 to provide our unique, proven and qualified services” of bird and wildlife rescue, he wrote. “Collectively our organizations have responded to about 400 oil spills . . . and may I humbly state that we are the most qualified groups in the world to manage a program such as this one.”

The larger point, Holcomb says, is that if you’re driving around a car with a gas credit card in your wallet, point the finger at yourself while you’re pointing.

“Maybe the silver lining in this horrific and catastrophic event is that people will wake up and ask themselves this question. ‘Is the cost of exploring for, using and transporting fossil fuels and their byproducts worth the risk?’ Look at that iconic picture of the gull covered in oil from this spill.

“If you can live with that, drive you car, discard your plastic water bottles and tell your kids that it is all OK then go for it.”

Saving Nature from Human Mistakes

We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us . . . (they) cannot speak for themselves. — Harriet Beecher Stowe

There is strength in numbers, and the number of agencies and organizations helping the bird rescue efforts in the gulf is growing.

The National Audubon Society is setting up a national volunteer response center in Moss Point, Miss., and from there they will mobilize more than 13,000 volunteers.

They will call on their volunteers to be center staffers, bird surveyors, aides to arrange for transportation of wildlife and helpers to make nets, cages and other materials the pros can use.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is increasing its ranks daily, and keeping current data about the rescue efforts.

eBird, an online birding checklist that tracks numbers of bird species, is asking their many bird-watchers to start surveying gulf coast birds. In January, eBird had more than 1.5 million bird observations in North America, according to their website.

Oceana, The Sierra Club, the national Sea Grant program, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, the American Bird Conservancy and many others are involved.

Social media and blogs may be the best way to track the events and emotions of the people most closely involved with the wildlife rescue.

Those include:

• International Bird Rescue Research Center on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube and their blog. (Their top YouTube video, explaining why Dawn dishwashing detergent is the oil spill cleaner of choice, is entertaining.)

• Audobon Magazine’s oil spill blog also is revealing.

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also has frequently updated information on their oil spill webpage, on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. To track the daily numbers of birds, sea turtles and mammals reported caught alive, found dead and released, follow this Fish and Wildlife webpage.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network