People, animals and environment are stressed out over the spread of the oil onto the beaches and wildlife sanctuaries in the Florida Keys. Our NC staff arrived in the “Keys” yesterday to read the headlines of a local paper ” Oily slicks will arrive here within the next two days” To observe history in the making, knowing you are possibly photographing the wildlife for the last time before their entire health and habitat are altered maybe forever is a bitter sweet experience. The oil is 75 miles off shore.
- Live feed of BP efforts to contain gulf oil leak Look at the oil covered bird images. Why is no one rescuing them?
- Even a dime size drop of oil could kill a bird, when a bird encounters oil on the surface of the water, the oil sticks to its feathers, causing them to mat and separate, impairing the waterproofing and exposing the animals sensitive skin to extremes in temperature. This can result in hypothermia, meaning the bird becomes cold, or hypothermia, which results in overheating. Instinctively, the bird tries to get the oil off its feathers by preening, which results in the animal ingesting the oil. This ingestion can cause severe damage to the bird’s internal organs. The focus on preening overrides all other natural behaviors; including feeding and evading predators, making the bird vulnerable to secondary health problems such as severe weight loss, anemia and dehydration. Many oil soaked birds loose their buoyancy and beach themselves in their attempt to escape the cold water.
BP is currently using in the marshes a snare and absorbent boom to trap the oil.. With the tide changes, They still claim that the booms work “pretty effectively at picking up oil as the tide comes in and out.
Hello what planet are they looking at this spill from?
When oil hits the marshes, it covers the grasses and plants,
leaving the plants with high and low brown tide markings as the water recedes.
- All Pelican and other bird nests and rookeries become covered in thick brown oil as the tide comes in.
- The oil soaks into the soil of the marsh lands and barrier islands, eroding the fragile ecological makeup of the wetlands. Oil poisons and suffocates all it covers.
- Even with a minor spill, oystermen reported oil-covered oysters ten years after a spill, because of oil seeping into soil.
Some scientists know think we should nuke the oil hole to close the well. Yummy radioactive fish and glowing oil balls falling from the sky-how wonderful!
Resources
Live feed and video courtesy of boston.com/caught_in_the_oil
Excerpts courtesy of ibrrc.org/oil_affects
Excerpts courtesy of seminal.firedoglake.com
