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Gulf Coast Oil Spill
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KLMNO One bird’s odyssey through the oil by Bonnie Berkowitz and Todd Lindeman
PLAQUEMINES PARISH, LA. — As inches-deep oil washes into nesting grounds and habitats along the Gulf Coast, animal rescuers have seen a surge in gunk-covered wildlife in the past week. The solution is not a quick hosing off but a delicate process that takes days or weeks and results, ideally, in a healthy bird taking off over oil-free waters. Here is one brown pelican’s trip from rescue to recovery:
TEXAS New Orleans Orlando
Fort Jackson Center
0 MILES 250 Site of spill Gulf of Mexico FLA. Miami
Atlantic Ocean
RELEASED
RESCUED A team coordinated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries netted the subject of this story, a large brown pelican, while patrolling Breton Sound on May 29. The bird was exhausted, dehydrated and coated in thick oil. It was immediately transported by climate-controlled van to the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
Animal emergency centers have been set up in all the gulf states, but most oiled birds have gone through this warehouse-turned- rehab facility just up the road from Venice, La.
Director Jay Holcomb of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in California, who has worked on more than 200 oil spills since 1971, operates the center with a staff of about 20, including six rehabilitators. The center was set up to handle 200 to 300 birds but is being expanded. Holcomb’s team has taken in more than 450 birds since the spill began April 22.
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Birds that are injured but unoiled may be placed in indoor pens separate from the oiled birds.
Food trailer
SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010
Why clean the birds?
A feather contains tiny barbs and hooks that mesh like Velcro, sealing out water. Oil destroys this natural waterproofing and insulation, which could lead to hypothermia and likely death.
An oil-covered brown pelican, not the subject of this story, along the
Louisiana coast on June 3.
Oiled-bird trailer
7 Outside to “Pelican Island” Triage 1 3 Prep p 1 2 W s inWash ng 3 4 1 Triage
As soon as it arrived, veterinar- ians examined it and took feather and blood samples to test for anemia and infection. They gave it a temporary tag: Brown Pelican 053, because it was the 53rd oiled bird received alive at this center. The bird got no cute nickname: “We don’t name them, because we really want to keep the mind-set that they are wild animals, not pets,” said veterinarian Heather Nevill.
2 Oiled-bird trailer
Oiled birds cannot be washed immediately; it’s too stressful. So 053 rested for two days in a temperature- controlled trailer and received IV fluids and food, plus a little Pepto-Bismol to protect its stomach lining.
Ingested oil can damage animals’ kidneys, livers and other organs, but Nevill said a pelican’s digestive system is so efficient that it disposes of oil within about four hours.
3 Prep table
Just before they are washed, birds are sprayed with warm canola oil to loosen the muck on their feathers. Very heavily oiled birds may require an additional pre-wash. Nevill said that air sacs under the pelican’s skin feel like it’s covered in bubble wrap.
4 Washing tubs Four people were required to wash 053:
Danene Birtell cleaned the head and pouch using cloths, toothbrushes and small sponges on sticks. She kept a finger in the beak to keep the bird from overheating and regularly rinsed its eyes with water to remove any soap.
Patrick Hogan washed the rest of the bird, constantly swooshing water up under the feathers to remove oil.
Shannon Griffin held 053’s legs folded under its body and held its wings in or out as needed.
Triage 15 min.
053 RESCUED
13 2
Oiled-bird trailer 2 days MAY 29 30 7 31 7 “Pelican Island”
Once dry, 053 went outside to join other recuperating pelicans in an aviary with a pool, fountain and pan of small fish for snacks. “Pelican Island” is one of five outdoor enclosures. Veterinarians took blood samples every three days to make sure the bird was well and made sure its waterproofing was returning to normal. Holcomb says cleaning methods have improved and hardy birds such as pelicans withstand the process well.
JUNE 1 2 45 6 Prep 5 to 10 min.
Washing Rinsing Drying 50 min. 10 min. 1 to 2 hrs.
Harold Doucet kept tubs filled with 103-degree water and the proper concentration of Dawn dishwashing liquid (up to 10 percent). Birds often require several tubs of water.
7 Recuperation in “Pelican Island” 6 days 3 4 5 JUNE 6
RELEASED At 4 a.m., Nevill checked 053 one last time and gave it some fluid to keep it hydrated on its trip back to the wild. The bird received a permanent ID tag and rode for two hours in an air-conditioned van to the New Orleans airport, along with five other pelicans, four gulls and a common tern.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service veterinarian Sharon Taylor met the birds at the airport and rode with them in a Coast Guard C-144 bound for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. After the four-hour flight and 20-minute ride to the edge of an inlet, the bird formerly known as Brown Pelican 053 waddled into Dummitt Creek, scooped up a fish and swam off next to a passing manatee.
berkowitzb@washpost.com Administration gives BP deadline for better spill containment by Ceci Connolly
Waves of crude oil reached the Alabama shoreline Saturday as the Obama administration an- nounced it has given BP until the end of the weekend to devise a more aggressive strategy for col- lecting oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. In a letter released Saturday, Rear Adm. James A. Watson, the top Coast Guard official in the gulf, told BP officials that he was not satisfied with the company’s current containment plan, add- ing that “every effort must be ex- pended to speed up the process.”
At the same time, President Obama tried to smooth diplo- matic tensions over the disaster, reassuring British Prime Minister David Cameron that his anger toward the London-based BP would not affect relations be- tween their countries. In a 30-minute telephone call, Obama said “that his unequivocal view was that BP was a multina- tional global company and that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity,” according to a state- ment released by British officials. The pair of messages under- scored the political challenges for the administration in managing
the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Initially, Obama was criticized for not being firm enough in his reaction to the April 20 explosion, which has dumped between 40 million and 109 million gallons of oil into the ocean. In recent weeks, Obama has inserted him- self more forcefully, scheduling another visit to the region Mon- day and summoning BP exec- utives to a White House meeting Wednesday. But as he ratcheted up the rhetoric — using a profan- ity last week and suggesting that the company’s top executive should have been fired — Obama encountered some backlash. In Britain, politicians and com-
mentators complained that his attacks jeopardize the viability of amajor employer. Obama’s use of BP’s earlier name, British Petroleum, reveals the president’s
“Anglophobic
spite,” British author Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote in the Daily Mail. “His rabid denunciations of BP have damaged the interests not only of that company but of most British people.” Thousands of Britons are in- vested in the oil giant through pension funds: Analysts estimate that 1 of every 7 pounds paid in dividends to British pension funds comes from BP. Under pressure from Washington, how-
ever, BP appears set to suspend that dividend at least temporari- ly. Fears are also mounting that the plunge in BP’s share price has made the company susceptible to a takeover. “When you consider the huge
exposure of British pension funds to BP, it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great Brit- ish company is being continually beaten up on the airwaves,” Lon- don Mayor Boris Johnson told BBC Radio. In his letter, Watson criticized BP for basing its latest contain- ment plan on earlier, lower esti- mates of oil flow. “It is clear that additional capacity is urgently
needed,” he wrote. Britain’s tabloids used Satur-
day’s World Cup opener between England and the United States in South Africa to further the trans- atlantic rivalry. The match ended in a 1-1 tie. By late in the day, the transat- lantic diplomatic spat appeared to have concluded on a similar note. After the Obama-Cameron
conversation, a BP official said that both sides seemed to be backing off a bit and that Wednesday’s meeting now looks “more like constructive engage- ment rather than a public spank- ing.”
connollyc@washpost.com
Staff writers Anthony Faiola and Steve Mufson contributed to this report.
5 Rinsing area
Soap can interfere with the bird’s feathers in the same way oil does, so thorough rinsing is vital.
6 Drying room
Newly clean, 053 was whisked off to the drying room to rest in a padded pen while floor-mounted pet-grooming dryers blew warm air. Smaller birds and wading birds are not blow-dried but they sit in pens under warming lights. Holcomb’s crew is now cleaning about 40 birds a day, most of them brown pelicans.
Travel to release point 4 hrs., 20 min.
RELEASED 5 6
Drying room
6 4 5 Rinsin in ing
Hot zones: Because oil is a contaminant, oiled birds and anything that touches them are quarantined in “hot zones” indicated by red lines.
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