Since the Gulf oil gusher was capped, observed wildlife impacts have actually gotten significantly worse.
That seems counterintuitive. But it's exactly what wildlife officials are reporting along the Gulf Coast:
[W]ildlife officials are rounding up more oiled birds than ever as fledgling birds get stuck in the residual goo and rescuers make initial visits to rookeries they had avoided disturbing during nesting season.
Before BP plugged the well with a temporary cap on July 15, an average of 37 oiled birds were being collected dead or alive each day. Since then, the figure has nearly doubled to 71 per day, according to a Times-Picayune review of daily wildlife rescue reports.
The figures for sea turtles have climbed even higher, with more oiled turtles recovered in the past 10 days than during the spill's first three months.
Over the weekend, the number of endangered sea turtles collected topped 1,000 (PDF), according to the Deepwater Horizon Response Consolidated Fish & Wildlife Collection Report (includes both live & dead, visibly oiled & not visibly oiled turtles).
Today, the National Wildlife Federation will be following up on yesterday's sightings of unusual discolorations in Louisiana's Chandeleur Sound. Here's what our team reported:
On Sunday, August 8th, NWF staff did an overflight of the oil spill (thanks to SouthWings). Leaving out of New Orleans, we crossed the Chandeleur Sound and saw red streams on the surface of the water caught in a rip line. As we flew farther into the sound, we saw mile after mile -- as far at the eye could see -- of what looked like red tide or dispersed oil just below the surface:
We sent some photos to a coastal scientist who is not sure if it is oil or possibly a major red tide. Either way, that would mean massive wildlife kills.
Our team is headed back out Monday with scientists to sample the water.
GPS coords for discolorations: 29 46 58 ... 89 02 11
You can see other photos of the discolorations at NWF on Flickr. For more updates on the wildlife impacts of the Gulf oil disaster, visit NWF's Wildlife Promise.
Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >> For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast's wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.
Follow Miles Grant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MilesGrant
Comments?
PS, why the appeal for funds on this article. How about your donating to the Gulf and the pilot's organization who flew you out over the Gulf?
With these teams being cut back will we begin to see more dead fish, birds and animals that were previously being "hidden and disposed" of now increasing in numbers? I hope not. It does make one wonder though why the numbers would begin increasing now. Of course the dispersants are a whole other piece of the puzzle. It is frightening to know that this DISASTER continues not only in the Gulf but apparently inland.
We first say these plumes on one of Dr. Shumaker's earlier flights. You can see the photos here: http://theamericanzombie.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-07-31T00%3A08%3A00-05%3A00. If you compare the photos from the two different dates, you can see the off shore plumes that were spotted outside (and inside) Mississippi Sound were not that color, but had hints of the color we see today. You guys don't have much time. I asked a diver in Florida to keep an eye out for this development there as well. He gave me this reply to my requesting him to see if he could dive in these plumes. See that here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/GulfCoastDiver?action=comments I implore you to get a boat out there and take samples. See my other blogs as Mammon and Snowballinhell. Thanks.
As penance, I went searching for an article at the other end of BOTH the comment activity AND the relevance spectra. This article is exactly that.
Maybe the scope of this tragedy stuns us all into silence, but our apparent failure to give a damn about Gulf wildlife will go down in infamy.
However unheralded, I commend the NWF for its vital work.