Sickening New Images of the Helpless Wildlife Dying in the Muck of the BP Spill

The Daily Mail
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 05:20 UTC

The bird struggles out of the sludge, fighting for air, oil dripping from its wings.

It could be an image from a grisly sci-fi movie. But it is not. This bird is a shocking illustration of the catastrophic impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on local wildlife.

The pelican - the official bird of Louisiana - was one of a number that were saved off the coast of the state.

They were barely able to walk or get out of the sea near East Grand Terre island, where officials found around 35 of the birds.

They were treated with detergents to wash off the oil. Many more animals have not been so lucky. More than 400 dead birds have so far been recovered.

Images such as this will only fuel anger towards BP as the spill enters its 46th day and the company struggles to stem the flow of oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well.

Previously, photographs of wildlife coated in an oily sheen were as bad as it got. But now the animals are drowning in the muck, as thick and sticky as treacle, and much, much harder to clean up.

Crude oil has been pouring unchecked into the Gulf of Mexico at up to 19,000 barrels (800,000 gallons) a day since an explosion on April 20 that demolished a BP-contracted drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 crewmen.

It unleashed an environmental disaster of epic proportions. The spill is now the worst in U.S. history - worse than the Exxon Valdez spill - and there is no end in sight.

U.S. President Barack Obama has now gone to Louisiana for a third time in an attempt to deal with the oil spill.

He had previously been criticised for not prioritising the situation in Louisiana, with Kirby Goidel, a political scientist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, saying: 'There's a feeling down here that this is not a top priority for him, that he's reacting to events rather than trying to control events.'

After landing at the New Orleans airport Obama headed into a briefing at an airport hangar with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the federal official leading the response to the spill, and other officials.

He then planned to make a speech and drive to Grand Isle, a barrier town affected by the spill, to meet with residents.

BP has failed in repeated attempts to stop the leak, and it has now spread from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to lap at the shores of Florida's white beaches.

Government forecasters said part of the far-flung oil sheen had crept within six miles of Florida's Gulf Coast and could reach the white, sandy shores in days.

Experts also fear it could hit the U.S. coast in just weeks. Underwater slicks are caught up in a Gulf current called the Loop Current, set to carry the oil around the Florida Panhandle and out into the open Atlantic.

The U.S. National Centre for Atmospheric Research projected that the oil slick would be driven by wind and currents around the Florida peninsula by early summer and up the East Coast, possibly as far as North Carolina.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and will last until October. The prospect of a massive storm spreading the oil, hampering efforts to cap the leak, is chilling.

Back in the Gulf, wildlife officials said 60 birds at the Queen Bess Island Pelican Rookery in Louisiana, including 41 pelicans, were found coated in oil before being caught and taken to a rehabilitation centre.

The brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird, was removed from the federal endangered species list last year.

A bird that feeds by plunge-diving for fish in the open surf, the brown pelican has been among the hardest hit birds by the spill.