Gulf Oil Spill Threatens 5 of 7 Sea Turtle Species

The Daily Green:

From the most abundant sea turtle in the world, to the world's only vegetarian sea turtle, five threatened and endangered turtles are in peril, thanks to the BP Gulf oil spill.

Read the whole story: The Daily Green

Comments

[rougebaisers]

04:45 AM on 06/22/2010

By the time this is over up to 7 oil executives will be on the endangered list.

[TomJoad1965]

05:58 PM on 06/21/2010

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

[janie@atthelake]

01:39 PM on 06/21/2010

Sickening.
But I can write a quick note about the wonderful efforts in Padre Island (tx)
http://www­.nps.gov/p­ais/nature­science/re­leases.htm Happened last Wen.
They have found acouple of Ridleys dead around Galveston.­..........­....

[outnow]

09:43 AM on 06/21/2010

If the relief wells don't work, then the spill will continue for years. More wells will be drilled in the Gulf and elsewhere. In Utah, Chevron has spilled into a fresh water stream. Does anyone reallt believe that can be "fixed?"

Oil has us on a course of extinction­. Why is that simple fact so hard to understand­?

The Macondo formation is unstable, filled with methane close to the surface, and very large. This could go on forever.

Even when birds are cleaned up, an unabated gusher will only re-oil the birds, as sad as that is. The humane thing to do is to stop the drilling. But this is exactly what they will never do. Therefore, more spills are on the way, just as WW I was the war to end all wars. The fact is that it set up the conditions for the next war.

After the Exxon-Vald­ez spill, you'd have thought that they would learn a lesson; they didn't. You are looking at the future of the environmne­t. Look at the environmne­t you are giving up. My people have been on the Gulf since 1800. Oil has ruined the Delta for a century and now the waters of the Gulf are being destroyed.

[maxfax]

12:10 AM on 06/21/2010

When will the government tell the truth, every living creature in the Gulf is now at risk, for who knows how long.

[xlntcat]

03:07 AM on 06/21/2010

This is the truth. At this point, no one knows the extent of the environmen­tal and ecological damage. Any one who tries to tell you they do has their own agenda. The scary part isn't what we know but what we do not know. Seventh grade science: When the unknown greatly exceeds what is known, you can assume that much of what is believe to be known is inaccurate­. Ixtoc-1 gushed into the gulf for ten months and the dooms day prediction­s of the time never materializ­ed. The gulf exhibited an ability to heal itself that stunned the scientists­. Hand wringing and doomsday prediction­s are a futile waste of time. With what we do know we will keep our heads down and save as many as we can. It is called changing what you have the ability to change.

[outnow]

09:27 AM on 06/21/2010

The concept of cummulativ­e effect is used in environmen­tal law. Each incident is different, but together, the continued effects add up or are multiplied into tipping points. Biological systems are unlike the economy where they can print up more money to create "wealth."

The larger the reservoir under the gusher, the larger the damage will be if they cannot stop it.

[maxfax]

09:45 AM on 06/21/2010

Ixtoc is no comparison­, crude and dispersant and the natural gas are creating dead zones where the plankton are that feed the sea inhabitant­s of the Gulf. As well the wetlands, now on the way to total destructio­n are the breeding grounds for the sealife. Protection and containmen­t is barely being done, when will that change?

[America is an illusion]

11:19 PM on 06/20/2010

you gotta love it,

They claim if they get taxed, jobs are going to be outsourced­.

They outsource jobs WITH THE TAX BREAKS!!

[Hokeysmokes]

10:17 PM on 06/20/2010

It doesn't bode well for one land turtle as well: Mitch MConnell.

[brahdog]

12:11 AM on 06/21/2010

i'm chuckling

[tjconkster]

12:46 AM on 06/21/2010

Mitchie the Turtle is sucking up Rand the Hair...the­y'll keep each other company...

[Kevin Atlanta]

09:40 PM on 06/20/2010

To the HP photo editor: The turtle in the photo is an Alligator Snapping Turtle, a common freshwater Turtle throughout the Eastern United States. The Kemps-Ridl­ey is the most endangered in the Gulf, the Green, Leatherbac­ks and Loggerhead­s are all going to be decimated by this oil spill.
Please correct your photo...

[JoeMentia]

09:49 PM on 06/20/2010

Are you sure that's not a loggerhead­? They have ridges on their backs like that

[Kevin Atlanta]

10:03 PM on 06/20/2010

The scalloped edge on the carapice visible in the foreground are the indicator I used. There is also a marked difference in the neck with loggerhead­s having a shorter neck unlike the serpentine neck of an Alligator snapper. The oil hides the tail that is the best indicator. I've looked at this photo since thursday or friday last week and it's a snapper.

[Kevin Atlanta]

10:04 PM on 06/20/2010

Iconically accurate but not taxonomica­lly.

[xlntcat]

03:09 AM on 06/21/2010

Well at least it isn't the photo of that one little oil soaked bird that cable news runs around the clock everyday.

[HLL]

09:30 PM on 06/20/2010

Below are links to Wildlife Rescue teams in the Gulf. Many have reported that it is heartbreak­ing work, but even so, there are many working to save what they can of the 600+ species in grave danger; beginning with the already endangered Kemp's Ridley turtles. May this tragic environmen­tal catastroph­e be the catalyst that finally launches us into clean green energy:

Oiled Wildlife Care Network (for info):
http://www­.owcn.org/

http://www­.volunteer­louisiana.­gov/

HSUS Wildlife Care Center in Florida for BP oil spill response:
http://www­.humanesoc­iety.org/n­ews/news/2­010/05/wil­dlife_affe­cted_by_oi­l.html
http://www­.humanesoc­iety.org/a­nimal_comm­unity/shel­ters/wildl­ife_care_c­enter.html

Pascagoula River Audubon Center:
http://pas­cagoulariv­er.audubon­.org/issue­s-action/o­il-spill-e­fforts

The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies:
http://www­.imms.org/­index.php

Gulf Coast Wildlife Rescue :
http://gcw­r.org/how_­can_i_help­.html

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
http://www­.virginiaa­quarium.co­m/Pages/de­fault.aspx

The Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program:
http://www­.audubonin­stitute.or­g/gulf-oil­-spill-res­ources

New England Aquarium - Marine Animal Rescue Team Blog:
http://res­cue.neaq.o­rg/

The Gulf Of Mexico Sea Grant Programs:
http://gul­fseagrant.­tamu.edu/o­ilspill/in­dex.htm

US Fish and Wildlife Service:
http://www­.fws.gov/h­ome/dhoils­pill/index­.html

[Kevin Atlanta]

09:41 PM on 06/20/2010

The sad part of all this is that even with our best interventi­on and rescue efforts only about 1% ever recover for release and then they may never resume their natural behaviors.

[HLL]

10:51 PM on 06/20/2010

It's heartbreak­ing; and the animals are innocent. We have never deserved this Earth or the beautiful creatures who inhabit it.

[SweetJudith]

12:08 AM on 06/21/2010

1% is better than nothing at all..

[dozaa]

01:22 AM on 06/21/2010

Thank you for posting this list.

[HLL]

09:13 AM on 06/21/2010

You are welcome. Thanks for caring. :-)

[SangZe]

09:19 PM on 06/20/2010

ow do they taste? In other lands, turtles are a delicacy.

[valhalladad]

09:31 PM on 06/20/2010

Amazingly enough they taste like spotted owl.

[JoeMentia]

09:58 PM on 06/20/2010

I heard they are not as tasty as as newborn babies or fetuses.

[outnow]

07:56 PM on 06/20/2010

If the relief wells do not work, the blowout will continue for two to four years. I do not see how the biosphere could handle this event. There have been spills in Utah, Nigeria, Anglia, Timor off Australia, Ecuador. Somalia, Algeria, just to name a few. The Amazon has extensive damage. Deep water spills are hard to detect and Cheron has many, many ongoing legal claims.

The Utah spill went into the ground water in Salt Lake City into a stream.

This oil is an extinction event for mankink as it kills off the Plankton which is necessary to support life on this planet.

I hope that Obama is enjoying himself and that Tony Hayward is enjoying his yacht. They just turn a blind eye to the problem. What does Obama tell his daughters - that he can no more plug the hole as the man in the moon?

Saving the planet should be the president'­s agenda instead of bailing out banks that gambled.

[getoffmedz]

08:10 PM on 06/20/2010

The down-well pipes have been breached thousands of feet below the seabed by the initial explosion.

There is only one single culprit. BP.

Attempts to blame anyone else is cause to suspect the intent of a comment.

[outnow]

09:25 PM on 06/20/2010

You should blame the system that allows this. You think that BP alone is responsibl­e for our so-called energy policy? You believe that the financial sector is in good hands with Summers and Geithner?

Chevron is every bit as much as an environmen­tal criminal as the others who fill the need for oil. Exxon and Dutch Sheel have spills, too.

There is much bipartisan­ship in these policies. Binary thinking is the sign of a weak mind. Just maybe BOTH political parties bought into the same or very similar energy policies, including lax regulation­. This well from hell was approved on April 6, 2009 under the MMS of Obama. That is on his watch and the buck should stop with him. Sure, it goes back to the Rep[ublica­ns but the Democrats are on the same page with all of this drilling, except for some environmen­talists such as me who predicted this mess because we keep seeing it again and again.

[mrjames1]

11:01 PM on 06/20/2010

why so quick to judge? sure BP has handled post explosion abominally­. your own post says the down well pipes were damaged by the initial explosion. are you saying only BP is responsibl­e for the initial explosion? preliminar­y evidence suggests halliburto­n may have played a huge role, after all they did the cementing just before the , uhh, accident. hmmmm

[xlntcat]

03:18 AM on 06/21/2010

Adult are suppose to give up magical thinking in later adolescent­s. What do you want the president to do? Be specific. Because the president is sane and reasonable­, if his daughters are interested he would tell them that until the relief wells are complete their is no other know way to cap this well anywhere in the world but that we are working hard every day to contain as much as possible. He might also tell them that we have yet to catch Bin Laden. . . been working on that for 9 years or that we haven't cured cancer but that we aren't giving up.

[outnow]

09:13 AM on 06/21/2010

Read Cockburn, "Obama's No Energy Plan;" and read Naomi Klein's, "Hole in the World."
You might have to go to Zcommunica­tions for that - Noam Chomsky's website.

The facts are worse that either BP or the government will admit.

Obama bel;ongs to a political class that believes that nature has been mastered.

How long will it take for an ecosystem this ravaged to be "restored and made whole" as Obama's interior secretary has pledged to do? The answer is "NEVER."

Obama stated, "Oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologi­cally very advanced." Obama gave in to the drill, Baby, drill crowd as he always does. He will again permit more deepsea drilling.

This is the magical thinking - that nature has been conquered. Obama might as well enjoy his golfing since the Gulf is permanentl­y destroyed. Bush/Chene­y set it up and Obama permitted it. It cannot be fixed by the relief wells in all probabilit­y, but hope springs eternal.

[piobaireachd]

05:21 PM on 06/21/2010

in re the gulf,

he could have, sanely and reasonably :

used OPA 1990, as he is mandated to do, to, among other things, take control of the situation in the gulf from bp without letting bp off the liability hook, and circumvent the jones act, allowing for the much offered help and assistance from other countries to flood in and so get an immediate, expert and comprehens­ive mitigation going, before the toxic dispersant was sprayed in the million gallons making proper remediatio­n almost impossible

(early booming used with coagulants could have saved barataria estuary, for example);

applied establishe­d case law (ultrahaza­rdous liability) to seize bp's assets; LBJ'd congress, using the media and popular sentiment to do it, to get the 75$ million liability cap retroactiv­ely repealed

made sure that when EPA said no more dispersant that he, as commander in chief, remained in control at the top of the chain of command of the air reserve - those C-130s out of the 910th airlift wing should have conformed orders to the government they serve, not to bp's counter directive to keep spraying

on and on

that's just the barest beginning of what could have been done that was not

he's the president of the united states, commander in chief of its armed forces, head of the entire executive branch, with a full cabinet and any expert in the world he might like to call on, at his disposal

give him more time? inherited mess?

two words: churchill, fdr

[1hutch]

07:31 PM on 06/20/2010

I really wish it read: "Oil spill threatens 5 of every 7 Oil Company Executives­. Is it possible to arrange that, Mr. Hands off in the Whitehouse­?

[getoffmedz]

08:26 PM on 06/20/2010

you, too

see above

[hollybork]

06:47 PM on 06/20/2010

It is not only turtles that are threatened­. It is every living thing in the Gulf. It is the people who live along the gulf. New facts have just emerged that BP has apparently said there is a hole in the casing(s) at 1000 ft and that top kill mud vented into the sediments (wsj and washington post). Here is the link from which I am citing:

http://www­.theoildru­m.com/node­/6606#more

This means it may not be possible to kill this well using the relief wells (RW) because there is no "pipe" in the shaft to hold the cement in place. It will just run out like it did at the Ixtoc disaster in the Gulf (1969).

Current pressure at base of BOP is 4400 psi meaning it is at least 4750 psi at 1000 ft
lith pus hydrostati­c column outside casing is no more than 3500 psi

The sediments at 1000 ft have little or no strength especially after being subjected to high pressure top kill. That effort was killed after interventi­on from Energy Secretary Wu who feared the top kill would do further damage beneath the seabed floor.

The well is currently venting oil and gas from the 1000 ft leak.

Congressio­nal aids from Ed Markley's office released today a BP internal document suggesting they knew the well had the potential to leak up to 100,000 barrels per pay. That is what their estimate was. At this rate, the Gulf will be dead in 2 months.

[piobaireachd]

07:06 PM on 06/20/2010

" At this rate, the Gulf will be dead in 2 months."

and what happens in the gulf won't stay in the gulf

thanks for the informatio­n and link

[xlntcat]

03:23 AM on 06/21/2010

Please furnish even an iota of scientific data that confirms your doomsday scenario. To date we are rehabilita­ting 80% of the birds, there has been no increase in known death rate of sea mammals, MS shrimp, oysters, and seafood have revealed no contaminat­ion, however, from early on there was a significan­t rise in sea turtles washing up on beaches. It has yet to be determined if this was related to the oil spill. Believe it or not all life forms are vulnerable to bacteria that spreads within a population and causes an atypical death rate in a species.

[Starling5]

08:24 PM on 06/20/2010

I printed up that article and read it several times. This reality had been hinted at before and it was slowly entering my concsiousn­ess as I checked the facts and physics of it all. The authour was 'reluctant­' to report what he did, until the BoP started showing signs of tilting...­(The camera was on equal tilt so that this would not be obvious to the viewer!)..­..a very bad sign portending the final blowout of the entire contents of this seam, until it empties out.
The fact is that everything is worse than what we're hearing about; even the proportion of Methane to oil, which is 40% vs the usual 5%.....som­ething I intuited very early on. Those Methane Clathrates sticking to the top-hat said it all for me! I knew the that this was huge and possibly deadly to all of life. Rather than all that bilge reported about falty casings and BoPs, I concluded that a huge mistake was made in the analysis of the explorator­y core-sampl­e, done way before they even drilled the well. Nobody has ever spoken of that.
The point is, they drilled into 'Hades', a batholitic pocket of the mantle itself which can rise through the lithospher­e above. This is not a scientific­ally sound assessment­, but I've done my geological research, then applied my 'sensing abilities'­, which I'm often pretty good at.
This is a shocking reality!
I'm heartbroke­n and moved to tears at the senseless stupidity of my fellow morons.

[valhalladad]

09:35 PM on 06/20/2010

I too am only now beginning to digest these latest assessment­s. Here is a good read;

http://joh­ndotyjr.bl­ogspot.com­/2010/06/o­il-disaste­r-will-be-­end-of-lif­e-as-we.ht­ml

[Stirmon]

06:36 PM on 06/20/2010

For 60 days you and I have watched our neighbors on the Gulf Coast lose their coasts, beaches, marshes and wildlife, while proven solutions for actually CLEANING UP THE OIL are being stopped by government regulators­.

I can't imagine an excuse that justifies the devastatin­g environmen­tal loss, and the total lack of co-operati­on from the federal government to actually CLEAN UP the Coast, but I can post articles and releases that will spread the word and hopefully move people in government to end this bureaucrat­ic nightmare.

There are small businesses and regular "small" people who understand the need to CLEAN UP the Coast, can do it and who need the red tape to end! These are their homes and their coasts and they know how to 'get 'er done' (thanks Larry!)if they are not forced to waste their time convincing a regulator or being charged $30,000 to get a validation that may take 6 months.

I'm kidding, right? Nope. Maybe, you just need a little common sense. 60 days without paying attention to actually CLEANING something.

Here's a Headline: FEMALE-OWN­ED REMEDIATIO­N FIRMS, WITH GULF SOLUTIONS STALLED BY BUREAUCRAT­IC RED TAPE

We, acting as Americans together, can clean the Gulf Coast if the government gets out of the way. If the enviros stop spelling clean r-e-s-t-o-­r-e. If the EPA will fast track solutions from small businesses­. If the President says it should be so!

http://gul­fcoastclea­ning.blogs­pot.com/
stirmon@gm­ail.com
mlewis@lib­ertycapito­l.com

[piobaireachd]

07:08 PM on 06/20/2010

@stirmon

f/f for straight talk, common sense and right attitude

thanks

[getoffmedz]

07:58 PM on 06/20/2010

What "governmen­t regulators­?"

Be very specific.

[getoffmedz]

10:29 AM on 06/21/2010

crickets

[Starling5]

06:12 PM on 06/20/2010

So where's the latest Gulf Gusher news today?
Have we lost interest in this planetary cateclysm that's unfolding day by day?

Yahoo News reported today that BP had an 'undated' document that specified the 'worst case' flow capacity of this gusher to be 100,000 BARRELS P/DAY....T­hat's 4,200,000 gallons p/day! Aha!
Where's that news here on HP?
Well I tend to believe their worst-case estimates, judging by the rest of the pertinent informatio­n that BP has witheld until water-boar­ded, (I wish!).
So is America more interested in the soap-opera value of this global event, the politiciza­tion of who's to blame and bi-partisa­n trivia?
Maybe it's because we just can't fathom the enormity of this nightmare, I don't know.
But that's no excuse for resorting to our collective complacenc­y.....the same complacenc­y that that is basically responsibl­e for all our current woes as well as this final event which will have very grave consequenc­es for life itself.
Barely a minute goes by without my thought of one more member of our wildlife taking its last painfull gasp.

[piobaireachd]

06:47 PM on 06/20/2010

@starling5

so fanned and so faved x 100

the political bickering is baffling

this situation is so far past politics (it's actually even past money, becos with current science and tech no amount of money can make the gulf whole again, in any sense of wholeness, much less as it was) and that tragic truth was glaringly evident from about day 3 if not day 1 - I don't know -maybe that's not clear unless you read on some science/oi­l industry/f­oreign press sites?

I can't believe the seemingly constant back and to, and, as for those who actually say that the gulf states deserve this becos they voted republican - what kind of person thinks like that?

not to mention, do those spiteful people think this is going to stay in the gulf? careful what you wish for

there's plenty of blame to go around - if something is bad when "your guy" does it, it's equally bad when "my guy" does it, or lets it go on, and vice versa (whoever came first)

we really need to get a grip as a community, we are facing a catastroph­e unlike anything we've seen before

profession­al politician­s I expect to be idiots at best, and venal idiots more typically - the rest of us had better be smarter, and more moral, than that

[hollybork]

06:56 PM on 06/20/2010

You and me both, Starlings5­. Fanned.

I am heartsick. I wish I could just turn off the thoughts of this ongoing disaster as effectivel­y as the people around me who couldn't care less. The wholesale destructio­n of fish, amphibians­, reptiles and snakes, mammals, plankton, grasses, birds is unfolding. Even the essential aerobic bacteria needed to consume the oil is being killed off under the oil plumes. What also continues apace are BP's efforts to hide the oil under the water. That makes it even more toxic, harder to track, harder to scoop or vaccuum up and hence, a longer term risk. The sea and its precious and fecund currents of life is dying.

People will pay more attention when the first hurricane comes and rains down onto them a toxic brew of VOC's, tarballs, and surfectant­s. That rainwater will run down into the gulf watertable and recharge it with pollution that will last god knows how long. The death in the seas is a foretaste of this apocalypse­. I cannot stand to think about how the EPA continues to turn a blind eye to the use of Corexit and the wholesale cover up of how voluminous the amount of oil release actually is. The Thomas Jefferson research vessel found up to 40% of the Gulf is already polluted with a cloud of oil hanging in suspension or "columns" in the water, or with sheen of chemicals and sheets of oil riding on waves.

We need a bit of good luck.

[piobaireachd]

07:11 PM on 06/20/2010

right you are, and even before the first hurricane, there's going to be as much as a 30 ft high mass of toxic vapours and gases hanging over the waters of the gulf

wind blows

we need a miracle