Gulf Coast Oil Spill

The Washing of the Oil

I went out again with Leanne Sarco, the Interpretive Ranger for Grand Isle State Park as she went out to Zone 15, on the eastern tip of Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Zone 15 has had oil sitting on its shores now for 13 weeks, and is where Leanne with her revolving volunteer army has been rescuing Hermit Crabs for over half of that time.  This day, the tide was high, so the main bar of exposed and accumulated oil was submerged, and was nearly covered with sand, and not quite noticeable to someone who might not know about the area's history.

As we pulled up to the beach with our crew which included Rachel McKay Laskowski and Craig Hill from the World Animal Awareness Society, hundreds of birds flew up from the main contaminated shore.  Five species of Tern, Black Skimmers, Gulls, and shorebirds, which included a few Red Knots made up the group.  Migration is in full swing now, and shorebirds in the front yard as well as bright flecks of yellow plumage flitting through the live oaks is the order of business on the barrier islands of the Gulf Coast right now.
Short-billed Dowitchers in the front yard, 9/2/10. 

One pattern that has been emerging through my observations here is that just like the heaviest of the oil, roosting birds seem to prefer natural points along the front edges of the islands as well as the sandy coves on the inside.  From the air you can see that the oil tended to accumulate most in very predictable ways, usually heaviest on the eastern edge of points and spits on the gulf side of the islands.  It also wrapped around and came to rest in larger concentrations in small eddies and coves on the insides and in the channels that separate the islands.  Unfortunately, the points are also where birds tend to congregate as well.
Thick oil, just under the sand in Zone 15, Grand Isle, Louisiana 9/3/10. 

Many of these localities received many thousands of gallons of oil during the last weeks of May through the middle of June and continue to see higher concentrations of tarballs arriving on shore daily.  The clean up crews were so poorly organized and understaffed that the vast majority of this oil still remains, and has been covered in many cases by layers of sand.  The effort to clean the shoreline was in no way, shape or form adequate to deal with the severity and immediacy of the problem as the oil piled up on the shores of the Gulf, though BP had over a month to prepare.  The technology to remove this oil with vacuum trucks exists and was employed in very limited instances, but never attempted on any of these beach sites, even in areas accessible by motor vehicle.  And so the oil remains.
 Vacuum trucks like these can pump the emulsified oil out of the water in a fast and effective manner.  

Leanne told me that the Park staff had just heard about an application for a permit by BP to surf wash the contaminated sand of the park.  Some of this sand has several layers of very thick crude in it, not light contamination.  So, today they were gathering all of the contaminated sand dug up by the one crew working with shovels and the three "zamboni" sand collecting machines and piling it in great mountains, which if the permit goes through will be pushed toward the shoreline where the wave action will magically remove the oil from the ecosystem.  This is in spite of the fact that they have a centrifuge which they have been decontaminating sand with since mid-July, that supposedly can clean 50 tons of sand per hour.  Coast Guard chief Robert Laura on July 4th told me that it can handle more sand than they can bring in and will return the sand cleaner than when it came in.  Perhaps it's just cheaper to push it into the ocean.
Tarballs on Grand Isle beach on 9/3/10.  This oil was scooped up by the zamboni and piled for the surf washing.

Since the media is no longer here, no one is asking the questions, and BP seems to have the run of things.  I have been in a deep depression for the last two weeks coming to terms with the fact that the nation's attention span doesn't seem to allow for any more real reporting about the spill.  One of the main problems is that to solve this issue involves confronting our very own personal behaviors and habits, and it makes it a much harder thing to deal with day in and day out.  We just want it to be rosey and good, and for the birds to live happily ever after, but that's not the case. 

Unfortunately, the easy story, the one that hurts less, the one that those with most to gain are telling us, the one that has not been investigated from desks in D.C. and New York are the ones we hear in the media.  This perpetuation of the idea that some how the Gulf is just going to be ok, though most of the limited available science is pointing to the contrary is not acceptable.   It allows people who would otherwise question the situation to believe what the BP PR machine is telling the public, a machine that from day one has evaded the truth, dodged questions, hid evidence and did so in a potentially criminal manner.  These things were wrong, but when this same story is re-canted by the media and even environmental advocate groups the repercussions are far more serious.
Oil in Zone 15, Grand Isle State Park, September 3, 2010 

Arriving Migrant Shorebirds Deal With Contaminated Coast

More and more birds seem to be arriving on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.  This week, increasing numbers of Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, and Semi-palmated Plovers were obvious on the shores of Grand Isle, Louisiana as well as many other species.  I also took a trip to Waveland, Mississippi and again encountered large numbers of Semi-palmated Plovers and Sanderlings there, as well as a Piping Plover.  The thrill of finding lots of fun birds to look at is being hampered by the uncertainty of their fate as we are still in the dark as to the effects on the ecosystem of the oil that has washed ashore here and the millions of gallons of dispersant that were poured into the Gulf.  Yesterday while on an expedition to try and find an island where many dead birds were reported, we saw a large flock of American White Pelicans roosting along the oily shores of Terrbonne Bay.  To see these majestic creatures along the shores where thousands of other birds are dying of unknown causes is distressing to say the least.
One hundred American White Pelicans testing fate.  

Although the appearance of oil on plumage seems to be going down, throughout the gulf, people are finding dead and dying birds that don't appear oiled.  On Raccoon Island, and in Lake Felicity photos have come out of massive die offs of birds, and it is very common now to see birds that just don't look right.  They look lethargic and tattered.  That's not a very scientific description, but anecdotally it seems that some of the birds down here just aren't healthy.  Perhaps we are just now seeing the physiological effects of the oiling that some of these birds experienced earlier, or is it a secondary affect from something in the contaminated eco-system, or perhaps something totally unrelated?
A threatened Piping Plover on a beach in MS that had a dark, thick line of uncleaned oil underneath 14 inches of deposited sand.

One thing that is common in the Gulls, Terns and Pelicans is very uncharacteristically worn and disheveled plumage.  A good percentage of birds seem to be adorned thusly, and their plumage seems less waterproof as well. It is not an uncommon sight to see Brown Pelicans with their wings spread like a cormorant, which is a behavior I have not witnessed in pelicans before.  In my bird surveys, I have begun to make notes as to this worn plumage, or disheveled look, even though many of these birds don't outwardly appear oiled, it is certainly a likely effect from prior contact with the oil.
A disheveled Laughing Gull in Pointe aux Chien, Louisiana that was slow, and didn't fly well.

Maybe the fresh, sticky oil is no longer floating over the surface of the Gulf, however there are still many areas of beach that have heavy amounts of oil on them.  There is now much less effort to clean these areas, and the amount of tarballs washing up on Louisiana beaches has not decreased one iota.  Today on Grand Isle Beach, where it is open to swimming, fishing and crabbing, the beach was strewn with new tarballs, and not one person was cleaning any of it.  These tarballs warm in the sun and soak into the sand, or become gooey and can directly oil bird's plumage, especially Sanderlings and Plovers that forage along the beach front.
A migrant Pectoral Sandpiper plies the contaminated Mississippi mud. 

The scale of this disaster is so huge, that many people seem to be ok with the amount of oil that is being left on the beaches now, and will likely never be cleaned.  The fact of the matter is, if the amount of oil just on Grand Isle right now were to wash in on a New England Beach, or in San Francisco it would be a major environmental disaster.  The apathy towards this catastrophe  is very dis-heartening, and is directly affecting our nation's avi-fauna, and there seems to be no outcry for better handling.  The USFWS seems to be content with all of the oil on the shores, even on the Chandeleur Islands, and Raccoon Island.  I can bring a shovel to any beach now and find lots of oil under the sand from Waveland, MS to Terrebonne Bay, Louisiana.  On the east end of Grand Isle alone, a thick mat 50 meters by 10 meters wide, and 6 inches thick blankets the shoreline.  That is 18,500 gallons worth of weathered oil on the shores, which goes uncleaned even today.  The amount of fresh oil represented by that number is likely double the figure!  Now extrapolate that along the entire southeastern Louisiana Coast where oil of this type is everywhere.  Is that OK?
One shovel reveals three distinct layers of uncleaned oil in the sand on Grand Isle,LA on August 21. 

The situation here for the birds is far from over, and there are more unanswered questions every day.  The crew that discovered the dead birds in Terrebonne Bay has taken tissue samples, so I hope that at least there will be independent testing as to the cause of death of some of these birds.  Will the one hundred American White Pelicans meet the same fate?  Only time will tell.

Forcing the Media's Hand

As the media ignores the atrocities here in the Gulf and moves on to more important issues like Roger Clemens committing perjury I have been at my whits end trying to figure out a way to help the people and the wildlife of the Gulf.  Massive amounts of oil remain on the beaches of the Gulf, and since the clean up efforts have been pared down to almost nothing I would say that more oil is on the beaches now than ever before, as it continues to roll in on a daily basis.  Much of this oil has never seen a BP shovel, and it is quite clear that the responsible party never intended to clean it up, and that our government never intended to hold them accountable.

I'm not sure if this is a legitimate thing to do, but I devised a plan that if I contacted the media and showed them all of my irrefutable evidence of the oil, and BP's lack of effort to clean it up, and also publicized the fact that they were contacted and now know about this, they would have no choice but to report on it. I hope it works.  At least you know now that all of the media knows exactly what is going on down here and we can just hope that the amount of money BP has paid to run their advertisements constantly isn't enough to buy real journalism.

Drew Wheelan                                                                                For Immediate Release
Gulf Conservation Coordinator
The American Birding Association



It is now Day 123 of BP's mess in the Gulf. Many of you have interacted intimately with this disaster in the field and have seen the oil up close, and its effects on the coastal communities that are bearing the brunt of this catastrophe. Unfortunately, it seems that the media is ready to move on, as are BP clean up crews, believing the government reports that the oil is all gone. NPR reported last week that numbers of beach clean up workers have diminished from 46,000 to 14,000, and if what I am seeing on Grand Isle is an indication, those numbers are going down on a daily basis.

This week, and currently, the American Birding Association has identified large amounts of heavy oil that still remains on Grand Terre Island, Elmer's Island, the Timbalier Islands, the Chandeleurs, and even on the eastern tip of Grand Isle itself to name just a few. The vast majority of this oil has never seen a BP shovel or rake, and continues to go un-cleaned.

On August 16th, we encountered a large slick of emulsified oil in Coup Abel Pass in Barataria Bay. Though this type of oil is less common these days, it still exists. On August 16th we did not see one boat skimming, nor one beach clean up worker. It is legal to catch and sell shrimp where we found that oil.  Just yesterday, 8/19, I found emulsified oil on a beach in Caminada Pass, Louisiana. The fall bird migration, which will bring hundreds-of-thousands of birds to the Gulf region is nearly underway, and if this oil is left to the whims of nature, these birds will face great and unnecessary harm from contamination of their food sources and their habitat.

The presence of this oil and BP's woefully inadequate response are irrefutable, and I welcome any opportunity to show anyone this oil in person. Quite simply we are not doing nearly enough to report on the realities of how BP has mishandled the clean up "effort", and this is a major opportunity to report on a major ongoing story. The American Birding Association is committed to staying in the area to report on the effects of this disaster -- are you?

Pertinent Links:
Aerial view of oil in Terrebonne Bay and Barataria Bay, August 6th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUVkBPGxAO0
Video of Oil left on Grand Isle's Eastern Tip; Zone 15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bIkk7MCtOk
Photos and description of the condition of Raccoon Island on August 8th
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197546&id=161186488701&fbid=423496628701&ref=mf


Sincerely,
Drew Wheelan
Gulf Conservation Coordinator
American Birding Association

    

Louisiana in Photos Week 13, Gulf Oil Spill

The night crew takes a break from digging holes to locate the submerged layers of oil under the sand and determine the extent of the mass of oil. 
 The holes quickly fill with oil and water.
In spots the oil is very thick.  These layers are between 10 and 18 inches deep, and exist because BP didn't focus enough man power on cleaning the oil when it washed in, and let the tides cover it up. 
State Park Employee Leanne Sarco rescues Hermit Crabs from the contaminated water on BP's forgotten beach on Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Holt Webb from Vanishing America probes below the sand for submerged oil. 
Jackpot! Nasty black crude just under the surface.  A Willet and a Semi-palmated Plover were foraging around this pool just before this was taken.
This stuff is very thick, and nasty.  A BP shovel didn't touch this beach for over two months while this oil sat there.
A Willet on the front beach in the scummy water.
A young white phase Reddish Egret on the front beach in Grand Isle.  Good to know someone fledged successfully into the toxic Gulf.
Sunset over Barataria Bay.  

Video: Day 109, A Flight Over Affected Areas in Terrebonne Bay and Barataria Bay, Louisiana, August 6th

On August 6th I was lucky to get a seat on a Southwings Aviation flight over much of the affected areas of southeastern Louisiana.  I saw so much oil, I couldn't believe it.  Though there was only sheen and nasty foam in the water, oil was everywhere on the beaches and in the marshes, as well as submerged under the water.  Knowing what some of the areas look like on the ground that we flew over, I can't believe how bad some of these other areas must be, and nothing is being done to clean the oil up in most of these places.  The vast majority of area that we flew over had not been cleaned at all, and we literally did not see one clean up worker on any beach that we flew over.

Oil Everywhere

In the last four days I have seen more oil, by volume than I had previously in my entire first 11 weeks here in Louisiana.  On August 6th, I flew over Terrebonne and Barataria Bays with Southwings Aviation and the Lower Mississippi Riverkeepers.  What I saw was horrifying.  Oil blanketed every single beach and Gulf side marsh from Raccoon Island east to the Mississippi Delta.  There was evidence of clean up on 5 beaches, but from the air it looked like the efforts were all but superficial, except on Grand Isle beach which looked pretty clean.  However, on the eastern tip of the island we could see mats of weathered oil that extend for hundreds of meters along the coast, and have just begun to be dealt with by BP contractors. Nearly all of the marshes that we passed had a wide rim of orange and brown dead marsh grasses lining them.  Also what was evident were dark blotches of probable submerged masses of thick oil in the nearshore areas.  I learned last night that when the oil mixes with the sand, they call it asphalting, and this is what's happening nearly everywhere, as the sticky nature of the Louisiana crude bonds easily with anything that it touches, like feathers for example.
Oil found on the evening of August 9th in Grand Isle State Park.  This was from a 30 inch deep hole that revealed oil existing in multiple layers under the sand. 

I am so glad that I don't own a TV and have to listen to the propaganda being fed by BP on nearly every channel, and the main stream media and government reports that actually back up the claims that they are cleaning this oil up.  In two hours of flying over the affected beaches, although we saw evidence of clean up crews, we saw not a single person working.  Not one.  Everyday more migratory birds arrive on these shores, and little to nothing is being done to safeguard them from a highly toxic environment. I flew over 60 plus miles of coastline and nearly every marsh was oiled like this.  Marshes present a particular problem, in that they don't know how to clean them, but cleaning the beaches should only be limited to man power and resources which should be limited at about 97 billion dollars, so there is absolutely no reason why these beaches shouldn't be spotless.  A large accumulation of oil on Elmer's Island which has been there for more than 11 weeks.  It appears that they have just begun to clean the northwest corner of the deposit.

This oil on Elmer's Island has been there since the very first days that the oil hit, somewhere around May 20th.  From the air it is very apparent that they have just begun to scrape some oil out of the Northwest corner of the deposit.  This oil has been there for literally two and a half months without effort to pick it up.  When it firs hit shore it was the perfect type of conglomeration to be vacuumed up in a pump truck like the type used in Caminada Pass.  In fact these trucks could have and should have been deployed on day one, but it wasn't until may 28th that any type of clean up began anywhere, and then it was just a poorly organized show dressed in red, white and blue uniforms sent to perform for the President.

One thing that this flight revealed was that the oil, like seaweed and other debris tends to accumulate on points and eddies and geographic changes in the shoreline.  It then becomes apparent that much of the clean up effort should be focused in these areas, instead of ambling up and down beaches scooping up tarballs, there is real, heavy, thick oil in these locations.  Many hundreds of barrels of oil are represented in the above picture, which is contrasted now by the aerial photograph taken on May 22 by Richard Shephard of the exact same location.  Many more images of this oil can be seen on his website rsairphoto.com
Heavy oil on Elmer's Island in the very first days of oil hitting the shores of Louisiana.  It remains to be cleaned up 80 days later.

A disconcerting thing is that not only does oil tend to make landfall on these points and eddies, but it is also exactly where birds tend to roost and loaf.  Almost all of the large groups of birds that I have seen lately tend to congregate in these areas.  Young of the year dispersing from the colonies are congregating in large numbers in the Gulf right now, as well as many migrants.  I have not seen any effort to haze or keep birds form these areas where they can continually become fouled in this oil that, although weathered, becomes emulsified and nasty with the noon day sun.  There is oil throughout the Louisiana coast, and a very obvious pull out of clean up workers here in Grand Isle.  What will happen to all of this oil left behind?  It will continue to seep into the ecosystem and contaminate everything from crabs to shrimp to Reddish Egrets.  What is happening down here is not right.

Video: Day 91, Grand Isle, LA, massive amounts of oil contaminate the beach while a Reddish Egret forages near by

I shot this video while volunteering for the Hermit Crab Survival Project at the State Park on Grand Isle.  Park biologist, Leanne Sarco, having been denied any avenue to volunteer to help with the spill has taken it upon herself to rescue thousands of Hermit Crabs from a contaminated beach that BP has left oil on for more than 80 days now.  She and volunteers wash the crabs individually, and put them through  three tank cleansing process before releasing them on the less contaminated Bay side of Grand Isle.  This beach has no public access, or visibility so it has been left alone, while hundreds of people have been cleaning the front beach, less than 150 meters away, even when there has been no oil.  

Mass Fish Kill In Fourchon, Louisiana Provides Insight, But Presents More Questions Regarding The Gulf Oil Spill

Yesterday in Port Fourchon, Louisiana I came upon an amazing scene.  Thousands of birds, mostly Gulls, were engaged in a feeding frenzy in a small saltwater bay.  At first I couldn't tell what they were eating, but then discovered that they were mostly feeding on American Eels between 6-12 inches in length.  It is not a common sight to see Laughing Gulls be able to pluck living fish from the water's surface with such ease and success, so I was a little perplexed. It afforded a great opportunity to observe a large portion of the Fourchon area avifauna, and get an idea as to the level of oiling of the birds present at the feast.  Overall, the birds looked pretty good, and just a few out of the 600 plus Laughing Gulls were obviously oiled, and the same went for the Snowy Egrets and other birds present.
A Laughing Gull readjusts its grip on an Eel in mid-air

When I was driving away i noticed some creamy white things floating in the water, which, while wheeling down the highway looked mostly like frothy foam.  I pulled over in the breakdown lane, and through the binoculars could see that they were actually the white bellies of thousands of dead fish floating everywhere, which started to explain the success of the Gulls.  The fish were dying, and it was making it easier for the birds to catch them, but why were they dying?

This small, (1.2 by 1.6 miles) bay is blocked on all sides by road, and all water flow is through large culverts which connect to the outer marshes.  I don't know the depth, but I'm presuming that with restricted flow that the die off is likely caused by low oxygen in the water from the extreme heat that the region has been experiencing over the past week. I pulled over on a side road, where some guys were fishing.  Really, thousands of dead fish everywhere, and people were fishing and crabbing.  To one guy's credit, he was fishing the outflow of this bay, and having very good luck with Red and Black Drum.  The crabs in this bay look really nasty; dark and scabby, but the guys there were planning on eating them anyway.  As an experienced commercial crabber, I never would have seen anything that looked close to as nasty as these things looked making it into the tank.  The one guy fishing the outflow told me that he had been fishing there all of his life and "had never seen anything like this mass die off before."
All of the shorelines were covered with dead fish like this. 

As I investigated further, and got closer looks, I noticed that a lot of these fish actually looked like they had a little oil on their bellies, and in the water, near many of them was a colorful oil sheen.  Now, I know that some fish are oily, and you can actually see when Bluefish are eating mackerel from the slick it produces, but this oil was different, and it was coming from Mullet and Flounder alike,two species of fish that aren't known for their oil content.  This morning, I put my waders on and walked around in the water to get some better photos of the situation, and in places noticed oil coming up where I had stepped. 

I'm not saying that they died due to the oil, but I think it is impossible to disassociate this spill from any and all ecological systems in the Gulf region.  As everything is interconnected, where do we draw the line, and how do we ensure that our agencies are recognizing the existence of a line?  This bay is just 100 meters from the emergency operations center at the Port of Fourchon main office structure, where the Emergency Operations Center is stationed, and where all crews, including state and federal biologists work out of, yet, at noon yesterday I was the first person to notice this die off and report it.  Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries told me they would investigate the situation today.  I sure hope they ask the right questions, and find the true answers. Two Dead Mullet, a Colorful Oil Sheen, and a Blue Crab Feasting on the Fish

Another question to ask is about the "dispersments".  Since no one seems to care that our very own Coast Guard poisoned the Gulf with millions of gallons of the stuff, I've decided to use the Billy Nungesser version of the word, as it sounds a little less like disappearance, the strange new quality of Sweet Louisiana Crude brought to light by the Obama Administration and other media "sources".  One of the main problems with dispersments is that they use large amounts of oxygen from the system when they break down.  They have sprayed much of this stuff very close to shore here, and the common sight of foam on the water, and on the beach is taken as common knowledge proof of that, as the locals have never seen foam in their waters before.  This demand for oxygen in an area that historically experiences dead zones due to low oxygen levels is massively irresponsible at best, and could be considered criminal take at worst. The statements that they have not used these chemicals near shore is absolutely false, I have personally come into contact with them as have many people here on Grand Isle.

In conclusion, a lot of fish are dead.  A lot of birds are eating the dead and dying fish.  A lot of oil is still in the water and saturating the sands and marshes.  The media and BP are talking like everything is fine down here, and a visible lessening of the work force is apparent.  Saturated boom still lines many of the beaches and marshes further contaminating substrates and wildlife.  Large swaths of weathered oil still mat Grand Isle, Grand Terre Island, and likely all of the other barrier islands that were oiled, and it is unlikely that we'll ever get a satisfactory answer to what forces combined to kill these fish in Fourchon, Louisiana.  Gosh it kind of sounds like I've lost faith in the system, but it feels more like it was ripped away from me by a mega corporation, and the Government and media that it bought.

Break Down of Species of Birds Present With at Least One Oiled Individual:

Most birds with oil were lightly oiled, and the oil looked old and weathered.

Species              Total Number         Number Oiled

Laughing Gull         600                     3/250, (only 250 close enough to tell for sure)

Roseate Spoonbill  3                         1

Snowy Egret         23                        3

Great Egret          81                        6

Reddish Egret      1                          1

White Ibis            3                          1

Video: CBC To The Rescue. How To Save Snowy Plovers From BP's Clean Up Response

This is a video about the Coastal Bird Conservation's efforts to save a pair of Snowy Plover chicks on the beach near Panama City, FL.  Seeing the need for more protection, CBC convinced BP to allocate contract workers to monitor the birds, and help inform clean up crews about the situation.  So far it has been an amazing success.

Video: Cruising Queen Bess Island, Barataria Bay, July 29, 2010

On the hundredth day of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill I cruised Queen Bess Island in Barataria Bay with a film crew to check out the scene.  I saw one oiled Royal Tern chick out of the hundreds that were there earlier.  Yesterday, USA Today ran a photo on their front page which showed a clean up worker pulling oiled boom from the shores of Queen Bess island, precisely where those young Terns gathered, and where wildlife officials should have gone to rescue them.