Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Contracted Wildlife Workers Shed Some Light on Their Experiences in the Gulf of Mexico

Rebecca Dmytryk and Jay Holcomb, both wildlife workers from the IBRRC, one of the groups contracted  by British Petroleum to capture, clean and rehab birds in the Gulf of Mexico air some thoughts on their experiences while responding to the catastrophe.  In this article they address several of the issues that I witnessed and blogged about during my time covering the disaster in the Gulf.  They finally talk about being excluded from the capture efforts in the field by USFWS and LDWF as well as the near complete failure to search for, capture, or even look for affected wildlife at sea, closer to the site of the oil gusher.

This is a good and important read to begin to understand the wildlife response mission in the Gulf:

Santa Cruz Sentinel Article Found Here:

Also something to think about is an excerpt from a Florida wildlife rescue document.  Please examine the fifth line of the second section.  Why would there be ANY mention of "remaining visible in areas of heavy public use."  It illustrates that much of the spill response was about P.R. , including the wildlife response.

Fish Kill and BP Cover Up Confirmed on Grand Isle by Jerry Moran

In light of recent comments made by LDWF and NOAA biologists in an article on CNSNews.com that there is no evidence that ANY fish died as a result of the oil spill I feel compelled to revisit a few photos from the first days of the spill and to repost some information and photos gathered just this week by intrepid New Orleans photo-journalist Jerry Moran.  Jerry found the stench of death every where on Grand Isle, and mounds of dead fish buried in the sand by BP clean up crews, just this week!!!

First, lets look at what Bo Boehringer of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said," Fish have died for seasonal related reasons, said Bo Boehringer, spokesman Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.", and “We’ve investigated fish kills, but none have yet been tied to oil impacts,” 

Here are some photos from May 23rd on Grand Terre Island.  We encountered MANY dead large Redfish and Black Drum that day. All of these fish were still there when I revisited the island later that week, meaning NONE had been tested by LDWF.

There was no fishing, commercial or recreational going on at this time, and there was no unusually warm water to cause these fish to die, not to mention that they were covered in oil!!!

Now, here's a Bottle-nosed Dolphin found in the end of August by Darlene Eschete and the World Animal Awareness Society on Raccoon Island.  This animal was freshly dead at the time of their report, and when we re-found it there was a small circular chunk which looked like a sample taken from the neck.  Had the animal died from oil contamination it would not show up in the skin or fat, but in the lungs and internal organs.  NO effort was made to test for these on this animal, and it was tagged with LDWF in florescent paint and left to rot.

I dare say that this animal should have been brought in and had a full autopsy performed on it to determine the actual cause of death.  Incidents like this point to the fact that wildlife agencies charged with responding to this disaster have not lived up to expectations, and when we read that only 8,367 birds died due to this disaster we must question the reality of this number.

Now back to Grand Isle, this week!!!  Reports of dead fish everywhere on Grand Isle hit the internet and social media outlets last week.  They were largely Redfish and Black Drum, both bottom dwellers which are very unlikely to be affected by low oxygen levels due to warmer water.  

Here is Jerry Moran's report:

"All of these images were taken October 21, 2010 in the area of Latitude 29.199 N, Longitude 90.042 W.

For the first time in a few weeks, I headed out to Grand Isle, Louisiana – primarily to document cleanup progress that has – or has not – been made since the spill response began.

Earlier in the week, I received information regarding a possible fish kill around Grand Isle, which I confirmed to be true. My first stop was the west end of the island. Upon arrival, I did not see many dead fish, but while walking along the jetties, I was hit by an overpowering stench of death and decay. Back in May, I smelled this same scent and found a mound of buried bull redfish and dolphin, so I decided to go back to that same spot to check it out.

When I was about 10 yards from a recognizable mound of sand, I started hearing the unmistakable buzz of flies.

What I found was truly indescribable visually, I had never seen so many flies and the smell nearly brought me to my knees. There were at least 40 to 60 large redfish, drum – and who knows what else – under a BP “death mound” of sand in the exact same spot that I found the decapitated dolphin and bull redfish in May.

I find it very disturbing that BP cleanup crews are simply burying large numbers of dead fish and other marine life without letting anybody know.
 

There was also another death mound about 20 yards away closer to the beach at Latitude 29.199 N, Longitude 90.047 W. The media continues to consistently disregard or overlook these occurrences, reporting that everything is just fine in the Gulf. I know these reports are untrue, based on what I am finding six months after the spill.

Additionally, more evidence of land farming (or burying oil) on the west end of the island is seen in the images of the levee resembling the Grand Canyon rock strata, Latitude 29.195 N, Longitude 90.055 W.

Images at Latitude 29.266 N, Longitude 89.953 W are from the east end of the island behind State Park, which is still closed to the public. I couldn’t get to the beach, but I observed heavy machinery, and the constant and overpowering stench of death coming from the other side of the levee.

New Report of Oil in Grand Isle and Volunteer Opportunities to Help

This was just received from a good friend who lives on Grand Isle.  The clean up efforts have dwindled from 47,000 to 16,000 people throughout the Gulf, and there are currently NO skimming operations at all in Barataria Bay.

"Drew - A shrimper stopped today and said that oil is coming in heavier than he had ever seen into Barataria Bay and it is all over the Sand Dollar  and there is oil on our beach in front of house"

Connie and her husband Gary live just over half way down the island, probably in zone 9, on the front beach.  "Heavier than he had ever seen"  means pretty darn bad.  I hope that the USFWS or LDWF are down there to revamp search and rescue operations.  I'll investigate and let you know. The Sand Dollar is the main marina on the East end of the island.  How much oil is OK to let contaminate the beaches and marshes??

Volunteer Opportunity

Deepwater Horizon response activities continue in coastal Louisiana and it may be months or years before we know the full extent of the impacts. The cooperating organizations of the Gulf Response Involvement team continue to offer opportunities in coastal restoration that help preserve and restoreLouisiana’s disappearing coast. Please join us for our next event.

 

Little Lake Planting

Tuesday, October 26^th, 2010

8:30 am to 3:00 pm

Depart from Lockport, LA

 

During the Planting event, GRIT will provide:

·         All required equipment, including trash bags, shovels, life vests, etc.

·         Food and refreshments to all volunteers

·         Plant Materials

·         First aid kits on site

·         An information and safety briefing prior to the day’s activities

 

Volunteers must be 18 years or older. The project site is located west of Lockport, LA and is accessible only by boat. Volunteers will meet in Lockport. Volunteers must provide their own transportation to Lockport and lodging, if required. Volunteers will be emailed details about the event, including the exact location, once they are registered.

 

Volunteers must register online at www.lagulfresponse.org prior to the October 25^th. The event is limited to 30 volunteers, so REGISTER TO HELP TODAY! 

 

New Gulf Oil Found In Barataria Bay, and Clean Up Non-Existent in the Water and on Wildlife Refuges

While the well may have been capped in July, oil continues to wash ashore throughout the Gulf coast.  On September 19^th, my last day in the Gulf I met with pharmacist and activist Pam Batson from Mobile Alabama to survey the beaches in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  We had seen a video on Youtube posted which showed large amounts of oil entering the backwater lagoon through one of the passes in that community, and a commenter had posted that they believed the whole video was staged and that what was being shown couldn’t be oil, so we decided to check it out first hand. 

 

Upon arrival at the beach, the smell of oil was nearly overwhelming, and within a very short time, both Pam and I had terrible headaches.  In a weird way, I was glad that Pam was suffering as well as it validated what I was feeling and have experienced through the months in the Gulf.  With the media not paying attention, and the nation seemingly ready to move on from the largest environmental catastrophe our nation has ever faced, sometimes I question the reality of my situation.  But no, it was obvious that the fumes were horrible, and someone was there to tell me that it’s not me who’s crazy, it’s the rest of the country who, despite all of the math and science are willing to believe statements from our own government like, ”over 75% of the oil has disappeared”.

 

We walked about 200 meters down the beach through copious tarballs scattered through the splash line of the beach, and you could see many more just off the beach in the water.   When we got to the small pass in the beach, there were a couple of people fishing the breach with the incoming tide, and there was oil everywhere.  You couldn’t walk in the surf without having oil stick to the bottom of your feet, and larger blobs of oil, exactly what the video showed were in the water.  Some of these blobs were a one foot squared and about 3 or 4 inches thick.

 Snowy Plover tracks in the mine field of oil on Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

Earlier that day I had been on Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, and what I found there was even more disheartening to me.  As one of the only un-developed pieces of coastline from Pensacola to Mobile Bay, Bon Secour serves as a hugely important refuge for much of the wildlife in the area, including resident Snowy Plovers as well as migrating Piping Plovers.  There were tarballs covering nearly the entire 50-75 meter wide beach. After being deposited in the splash zone and wrack in the high tide line, the heavy winds had blown the tarballs all over the beach, and they existed in a high density almost to the far dune line.  I encountered a pair of Snowy Plovers here who had to navigate a veritable mine field of oil as they foraged along the debris of the tide line.  There was no clean up effort visible anywhere near this area.

 A Snowy PLover at Bon Secour on September 19th.  All of the brown dots are tarballs.

In fact, though the amount of oil that continues to wash ashore has not diminished at all, BP contractors charged with cleaning the beaches have been cut to a fraction of what they once were.  Even though their TV ads proclaim that they will be there to see this thing through to the end, they continue to put forth an effort that is no where near the level of severity of this environmental disaster, and our very own Government, Wildlife Agencies, and national environmental organizations seem content with allowing this to happen.  While some may be looking forward to habitat restoration in the region, they have all allowed a laughable response to this most urgent and pressing problem.  I don't know about the legality of picking this oil up, but I'm starting to think that ordinary citizens might start to organize their own clean up efforts to show what a herculean response looks like.

This is an exerpt from Steve Cardiff and Donna Dittman's most recent report from surveys of oiled birds on the barrier islands of Southern Louisiana;

Steve writes,"Still considerable patchy residual oiling across island with oil stains on rocks, and scattered dried pools of oil on sand and tidal flats, but oil has weathered and has disappeared from most plant stems; marsh vegetation appears generally healthy, but some small areas with totally dead spartina. Oil smell not as bad but still strong in spots.  No oiled birds encountered except for
immature Little Blue Heron with light oil."

and, " on the way back to Grand Isle from East Grand Terre Island we encountered substantial amounts of floating oil in Barataria Bay north of Grand Terre Island.  This
was reddish, snotty stuff in linear slicks, with the oily substance extending down into the water column.  We also saw more dispersed tiny blobs of this stuff scattered over wider areas of the bay.  Some of the denser slicks were covered with gas bubbles from apparent bacterial decomposition."

From Donna;" We were out Thurs-Fri – and saw some oil in the bay side of Grand Terre – no one skimming.  But, it’s more “dispersed” than the mats of gooey goop – but I think would still soil birds.  There was some of that on East Grand Terre."  Seen on October 8th!!!!

The results of the lame clean up effort.  Ghost Crabs excavate oil from their holes.  Is it illegal for Ghost Crabs to dig in Florida too?