How You Can Help Gulf Animals Impacted By BP Oil Spill -- Or Why Can't We?

National Wildlife Federation

Wildlife casualties in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are adding up. Numerous sea turtles, dolphins and migratory birds have died or are dying on gulf beaches. Sadly, this is just the beginning of the uphill battle for wildlife in the region.
 
Many people have wondered how they can help these animals. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they are on the front lines helping to assess damage and deploy resources to restore delicate nesting and breeding grounds. According to the National Wildlife Federation, you can donate money to their organization to "help protect the over 400 species of treasured wildlife that stand to lose so much from this devastating tragedy. Your support will go right to work protecting wildlife and wild places impacted by the BP oil spill disaster." You can learn more about NWF's Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund...

They are also helping coordinate the on-the-ground volunteer effort, including Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams, which are being deployed to monitor the coastline for wildlife in distress.

NWF also encourages you to speak up by telling your senators that now more than ever we need to pass comprehensive legislation that provides America with cleaner and safer energy choices.

If you live in the area and find injured wildlife, NWF advises NOT to attempt rescue yourself, but call the "Oiled Wildlife hotline" at 866-557-1401.

To learn more visit the National Wildlife Federation online at:  http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Threats-to-Wildlife/Oil-Spill.aspx

Coalition to Restore Louisiana
According to Connie Chan in her June 4, 2010 post on Yahoo! Green, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana maintains a list of volunteers prepared to help with wildlife recovery, monitoring and photographing oil movement, and providing boats and drivers for response activities. You can donate to Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana or register to volunteer. This is for registration only as they do not appear to actually be taking volunteers.


Florida

Connie Chan also mentions the following organizations in her story:

Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida
Ready to mobilize and provide appropriate care to injured or orphaned indigenous wildlife. You can find volunteer opportunities with Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida or donate.



The National Wildlife Federation Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams look for volunteers to track and report impacts of the oil spill, support wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts, and restore damage to delicate coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. You can sign up with them to volunteer.
An article titled The Gulf Coast Oil Spill: How to Help in Take Part originally listed numerous organizations to volunteer with, but many of them appear to now be closed to volunteer sign up. I mention a few of the organizations here who apear to be the currently active wildlife organizations. Most emphasize that volunteers must be trained.   

International Bird Rescue and Research Center has sent a team of specialists to the region to help with any oiled wildlife. The center's site has a comprehensive Spill Response FAQ for those who want to learn how oiled birds are cleaned and treated, and answers to many other questions such as the survival rate of the affected birds. IBRRC says that  because BP has committed to paying for the clean-up and wildlife rescue efforts in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, "your donations cannot be used to fund bird rescue operations in the Gulf of Mexico spill." You can visit the IBRRC website to learn more here: http://ibrrc.org/  

National Audubon Society appears to be recruiting volunteers to be trained to respond to the oil spill. Register to volunteer here. Donations also are a way you can help.  

Deepwater Horizon Response Unified Command The group is soliciting the public's ideas for stopping the flow of oil, containing or recovering it, or cleaning it up. Click here to submit your suggestion or call 281-366-5511  

Sierra Club has a sign up for volunteers who are Gulf Coast residents. Sign up online.

It is a mystery to me that with such a massive oil spill where the numbers of oiled, sick, and dying birds and wildlife are increasing with each passing day, and with so many willing volunteers, that volunteers are not being accepted by many organizations. I understand the need for trained volunteers. But people can be trained to help in such a dire emergency. It may be the only chance for these innocents coated in oil.

Is it that there is a liability concern because of the toxins in the oil and dispersants that volunteers will be exposed to? Is it BP not letting volunteers in? When I watch BP security guards on a public beach trying to stop a media person from interviewing workers, I can't help but wonder what it is that we the people don't know. What do you think the reasons are?

Posted By:

Dawn Kairns  

Author of MAGGIE the dog who changed my life

Website: www.dawnkairns.com 
Blog: Dawn Kairns and Maggie the Dog  

Twitter: themaggiebook

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Entire Species Could Be Lost Due to Oil Spill

I saw this on Care2 and thought you'd like it as well. Care2 is the largest and most trusted information and action site for people who care to make a difference in their lives and the world. Care2.com



by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
posted by: Nicole Nuss June 5, 2010

A cap placed over a severed pipe is siphoning some oil from the broken BP well in the Gulf Coast, the company said today. The company's CEO said this morning on CBS that it was possible that this fix could capture up to 90 percent of the oil, but that it will take 24 to 48 hours to understand how well this solution is working. Adm. Thad Allen, the former Coast Guard chief and oil spill inci
dent commander, called the cap "only a temporary and partial fix."

Despite the capping procedure, it became clear this week that the onrush of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig will not cease any time soon. Even in the best case scenario, thousands of barrels of oil will still flow into the ocean. Destruction is already spreading along the Gulf Coast, and before the oil stops leaking, species might be extinct and industries destroyed.

In the coming months -- it's not clear how many -- oil will continue to pollute the Gulf of Mexico. BP and the Obama administration are talking about August as the end of this crisis, but other experts have projected that the spill could last until Christmas.

As Justin Elliott reports for TPMMuckraker, BP told the government it could handle a spill much larger than this one. In the initial exploration plan for the well, BP claimed "it was prepared to respond to a blowout flowing at 300,000 barrels per day -- as much as 25 times the rate of the current spill," Elliott writes. BP cannot, it turns out, respond to a blowout flowing less than 20,000 barrels per day, and the consequences for the Gulf communities are only beginning to emerge. The first casualty will be Gulf ecosystem and its inhabitants. The second casualty will be the livelihood of Gulf communities that have depended on fish, shrimp, and oysters for survival.

How long?

In 1979, another company released torrents of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, in much shallower waters than where BP was drilling. As Rachel Slajda writes for TPMMuckeraker, the clean-up methods the oil industry relied on three decades ago are similar to the technology BP is trying now. The Ixtoc spill was comparatively easy to address; yet it still took 10 months to stop.

During that spill, the nearest state, Texas, had two months to prepare for the oil to hit shore, and still "1,421 birds were found with oiled feathers and feet," Slajda writes. The fishing industry escaped much damage, but the tourism industry lost 7-10 percent of its business.

Dead fish

In Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and other states affected by this spill, fish, fowl, restaurateurs, and oystermen won't get off easy. As Care2 reports, the National Wildlife Federation has already documented the deaths of more than 150 threatened or endangered sea turtles and of 316 seabirds ("mostly brown pelicans and northern gannets").

And BP is trying to keep images of the animal victims away from the public. Julia Whitty, reporting from Louisiana, writes for Mother Jones:

All up and down this shoreline angry and scared people told me some scary and infuriating stories in the past few days. I heard about the the dead and dying wildlife we're never going to see because the victims are being carted away to early responder ships and to inaccessible buildings onshore. I've seen some of those photographs which can't be shown (according to BP's new orders) of dolphins swimming through thick gunky oil, struggling sperm whales trailing wakes a mile long in thick gunky oil, dead jellyfish in gunky oil.

Extinction

The impact of the oil spill goes beyond those individual bodies, though.   As Inter Press Service reports, environmentalists and scientists "are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife."

"You could potentially lose whole species, have extinction events," Michael Blum, a Tulane ecology professor told IPS. "Brown pelicans were just taken off the endangered species list. On this threshold, a big dieback and mortality event, they would be pushed back into a situation where they could be endangered." Also at Care2, Jay Holcomb, Executive Director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, demonstrates a brown pelican being de-oiled, her feathers shampooed with Dawn detergent, her head and pouch cleaned with Q-tips.

Livelihoods destroyed
For generations, Gulf Coast residents made their living by fishing. Their fishing grounds are now off-limits. Some have found short-term work with BP fighting the oil. But those jobs come with new hazards.

Some clean-up workers have reported dizziness, nausea, and shortness of breath that they think comes from exposure to chemical dispersants. BP is not providing safety gear that would clean the air workers breathe and has threatened to fire clean-up workers who bring their own, Colorlines reports.

In the long-term, Gulf Coast fishermen may have no source of income and will have to abandon their homes and professions.

"It's a way of life,"shrimper Dean Blachard told Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman this week. "They destroyed a way of life, a way of life that if you take it away too long, you can't learn this in a school. This is passed from generation to generation, so the daddy teaches the son, and the son teaches his son. And, you know, once the chain is broke, you're never going to get it back."

It's understandable that the residents of the Gulf Coast might want BP to pay for the damage. At The Nation, Chris Hayes reveals that BP could be on the hook for mitigation, the cash value of injured property, and for punitive damages-all beyond the cost of cleanup itself. But, as Zygmunt J. B. Plater, a law professor who chaired a legal task force on the Exxon Valdez spill, explains:

"In Alaska, most of the damage was suffered by communities who had their quality of life destroyed, and there's no way to put a dollar value on that."

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint.

Posted By:

Dawn Kairns  
Author of MAGGIE the dog who changed my life

Website: www.dawnkairns.com
Blog: Dawn Kairns and Maggie the Dog  
Twitter: themaggiebook

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How Pelicans Rescued from Oil Spill Are Washed & Learn Oil Effects (Video)

See How an Oiled Bird Is Washed and How You Can Support the Effort

Published By: Cris Popenoe in Sustainability

Oiled Brown Pelican upon intake May 20, 2010 at Fort Jackson, Louisiana Oiled Wildlife Center.

source: IBRRC photostream on Flickr

If you are as concerned about the effects on birds and wildlife from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as I am, you’ll be interested in watching this video and seeing how help is being given one bird at a time. The pictures and video tell the story.

As the severity of the Gulf Coast oil spill increases a number of wildlife rescue organizations are on the front line. Among the most prominent are the bird rescue specialists from International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC). IBRRC is working with Tri-State Bird Rescue, the lead oiled wildlife organization on the ground, to set up and staff rehabilitation centers in Louisiana, Alabama Mississippi, and Florida, where the growing oil slick will most impact the birds. To support the IBRRC’s efforts go here.

In this video from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Jay Holcomb, Executive Director of the IBRRC, explains to us what happens when a bird becomes oiled and demonstrates how an oiled bird from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is washed at the Fort Jackson Rehabilitation Center in Louisiana.

Before & After: Oiled Brown Pelican Washed at Fort Jackson, Lousiana Oiled Wildlife Center   source: IBRRC photostream on Flickr

Posted By:

Dawn Kairns  
Author of MAGGIE the dog who changed my life

Website: www.dawnkairns.com
Blog: Dawn Kairns and Maggie the Dog  
Twitter: themaggiebook

Become a fan on Facebook of MAGGIE: the dog who changed my life

My Letter to President Obama Regarding the Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe

Dear President Obama,

Like many Americans, I have watched oil continue to pour into the Gulf with shock, horror, and anger. BP clearly does not have a working plan for sealing this leak. I can't help but wonder why you or a committee appointed by you have not created a think tank of experts from farmers to aerospace engineers to solve this leak that is destroying countless lives of marine animals, precious marshlands, reefs, shores, livelihoods, etc.

Please, Mr. President, take charge of this catastrophe. We have the minds in this country to solve it. Please, our ocean and the life she contains has already been so damaged, perhaps irreversibly. We may have lost some species forever. It is time to act. We need the greatest minds working on this. If BP hasn't solved how to seal the leak by now, please don't leave it in their hands alone.

I urge you to bring together a think tank to solve the crisis of thousands of oil pouring into our ocean each day from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We believed you when you said, "yes we can." I find myself feeling more powerless with each passing day with no end in sight to the gushing oil. Please, please show us that we can.

Sincerely,
Dawn Kairns

Posted By:

Dawn Kairns  
Author of MAGGIE the dog who changed my life

Website: www.dawnkairns.com

Blog: Dawn Kairns and Maggie the Dog  
Twitter: www.twitter.com/themaggiebook

Become a fan on Facebook of MAGGIE: the dog who changed my life
 

2009 Indie Book Awards Finalist
DWAA 2008 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award Finalist

The Innocent Animal Faces of the Oil Spill

My heart goes out to the families of the 11 people senselessly killed on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Explosion. This explosion could have been prevented according to Mike Williams, an engineer who survived (you can view last Sunday's 60 Minutes online) by jumping into the oil filled waters before the rig sank. And my heart goes out to the fishermen whose livelihood is in peril. To the beach resort businesses who are suffering.

Mike Williams described the burning pain he experienced as he swam through leaking oil, away from the burning Deepwater Horizon to safety. How many sea animals are out there suffering this burning pain before dying? My heart is aching for what has and is happening to our Gulf birds, fish, sea mammals, insects, reef life -- to our beautiful, alive ocean.  The eggs of the migratory birds that may never see life. The wetlands and fragile shores. These photos from the Huffington Post are not pretty, but I want somehow to honor the innocent animals, the animal lives taken that we'll never be able to count because they will sink to the bottom of the sea -- those who may become extinct as a result of this horrific human-caused tragedy.

For what has and is happening to you, I am so, so sorry ...

 

Posted By:

Dawn Kairns  
Author of MAGGIE the dog who changed my life

Website: www.dawnkairns.com

Blog: Dawn Kairns and Maggie the Dog  
Twitter: www.twitter.com/themaggiebook

Become a fan on Facebook of MAGGIE: the dog who changed my life
 

2009 Indie Book Awards Finalist
DWAA 2008 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award Finalist