463 Pelicans Die from Oil Spill Effects (Louisiana)

[funkybutt]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1119076262174710.xml

339 being treated at center in Venice

Efforts to capture oiled birds began Tuesday. Of the 802 birds taken from the island, 463 died, he said.

The impact on Louisiana's brown pelican population is unclear. Brown pelicans are listed as an endangered species in the state.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. Of the 802 birds taken from the island, 463 died,...man is like a cancer

[amazona]

6. oiled birds often die

Despite heart-warming images of people who clean oiled birds, as far as I know, it is still the case that many or most oiled birds do die in these spills. It is sad. But this won't stop the triumphant return of the Brown Pelican.

[XemaSab]

10. A lot of the birds that are "cleaned"

and released die too.

Oil disrupts the insulation of their feathers and they get too cold in the water.

[MisterP]

15. it's actually more about poisoning: the effects are cumulative and

long-term.
The organization in my profile is one I'm volunteering at (5th anniversary coming up for me!), and we're helpful to the "pelis."

[XemaSab]

16. Did you guys

come up to humboldt a few years ago?

[MisterP]

18. doubt it, we're strictly Southland Calif. (even if we get the occasional

request from Salt Lake City...)

[XemaSab]

19. OK

Enjoy socal!

[Missy M]

2. Brings back memories of the book and movie...

"The Pelican Brief". Actually, the whole bush administration reminds me of the movie.

[Ilsa]

4. And I was just commenting the other day about the

wonderful comeback the brown pelicans have made in the south Texas coastal area. We saw three or four dozen this last week while vacationing.

Of course, it couldn't last long, not with Bush* as the "environmental president".

I thought about the movie also, and how criminal this group is.

[Missy M]

5. This administration has no respect for wildlife...

and I'm afraid situations like this will keep happening. It breaks my heart.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Republican-dominated Gulf Coast, you asked for Republicans...

...you got what you voted for. Now you're going to have more of this in your own waters. Just wait until there are rigs visible from the sands of the coast. Imagine the great loss of bottlenoses, run aground on those white sands, loss which can only be attributed to Republican stupidity and greed.

Kiss your tourism goodbye. Except for hardcore gamblers, no one will want to spend time with you.

(Again, this is directed at Gulf Coast Republicans. I have several good liberal friends on the coast who fought the new drilling laws like crazy.)

[amazona]

7. maddy we've had drilling offshore Louisiana for decades

It is a vital part of our economy and was here long before gambling. Your situation in Mississippi is different, but this spill is in Louisiana, where we want and need the rigs, Democrats and Republicans alike. All industry carries risk. This was a small spill, the kind that can't be eliminated as long as storms and drilling exist. Yet it is not right to say that we should not drill anywhere offshore, even in places where we have historically drilled and where people depend on the remaining oil industry jobs. The Brown Pelicans will brush this off, just as they brush off occasional hurricanes that destroy barrier islands where they nest. What endangered the Brown Pelican was an inability to reproduce, at all, because of chemicals like DDT and endrin. This species is robust and can tolerate the occasional disruption of nesting season, because it has to be long-lived enough to handle such disruption caused by tropical weather in the Gulf -- which was not created by humans or the oil industry. We would all rather the accident didn't happen, but over-reacting and condemning an entire industry makes us look like cranks.

[Maddy McCall]

13. The economies of the two states' coasts are very different, though.

The Mississippi coast is dependent on tourism, some of which is spurred by the casinos, but much of which is spurred by sun and sand lovers. The waters of the Mississippi coast contain the dolphins that are known world-wide. It's very different from Louisiana's situation.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jacobin]

21. What do you think the price of oil and gas would be

If they shut down the thousands of producing platforms off the Louisiana coast? (25% of domestic production comes from the Gulf)

I fish offshore of Louisiana's coast every chance I get. I never see spills. Most of the oil washing up into the marshes is from oil tankers dumping their bilge in the Gulf..its the black tar. If you could dive around a few of the rigs and see the fish populations...it would be obvious that the structures are what the fish like.

[Maddy McCall]

23. No, I'm speaking about the MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST.

I may not have made that clear in my post, but I certainly don't deserve this attack from you.

You're brief history at DU of attacking people who have been here a long time is duly noted, though.

[obxhead]

8. so...

is the oil co. paying for this rehab or are we?
Why do we work so hard to destroy all that is great on this planet and do so little to fix what sucks on this planet?
Some days it can be so hard.

[XemaSab]

9. Industry usually pays

after long and protracted legal battles.

[amazona]

11. it appears to be a joint venture

Both Fish and Wildlife and Amerada Hess seem to be working together on this. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, while in an ideal world, the oil company should probably pay all costs, it is not really reasonable to ask them to control the weather. This isn't an Exxon Valdez where it's a clearcut case of sloppy operations. A tropical storm smashed my home and plenty of others too over the years. Tropical storms have killed adult human beings just by dropping a tree in the wrong place. Just because it isn't a hurricane, don't think it can't cause damage. 60 mile an hour winds in the wrong place are serious business.

[obxhead]

12. Born and raised in FL

Know all about tropical storms and hurricanes. Not much of an excuse. They don't just pop up with no notice.
Couldn't they have delayed shipping for a couple of days while the weather blew over?

[sintax]

14. kick

[gulfcoastliberal]

17. Awful. Since Hurricane Ivan, I've hardly seen a pelican.

That storm devastated the population around here in the FL panhandle (AKA lower Alabama/Alabama East). Of course, a big difference between a man-made catastrophe and a natural event.

[Jacobin]

22. I saw a boatload of brown pelicans at the mouth

of the Mississippi river about two weeks ago.

More whites, but a lot of browns

[gulfcoastliberal]

24. Here in the "cola"

It was mostly brown pelicans. Before Ivan there'd always be lots flying about Pensacola Bay. I remember the day the storm came in a flock of brown pelicans was braving the high winds, trying to find shelter behind my condo building. I felt so bad for them. Reportedly I-10 between Mobile and Pensacola was strewn with carcasses of pelicans after the storm; and that's just the road. But I'm glad they're doing OK over in other parts of Mississippi. My grandma lives in Waveland. I need to go visit her.