BP’s Oil Slick Soaks Louisiana Wetlands
June 23rd, 2010A Photo Essay From a Boat Ride Around Barataria Bay
Click on each image for a larger view
The brown pelicans of Barataria Bay in southern Louisiana are threatened again — by the oil slick created when British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon blew up in the Gulf of Mexico — just months after their species, pelecanus occidentalis, was removed from the Endangered Species List.
All over the barrier islands along the Gulf Coast, brown pelicans soaked in oil from diving into the water for fish sit up in the marsh vegetation holding out their wings to dry in the sun. Apparently they think their wings are just wet from the water, but the oil will never come off unless they are rescued and cleaned. Many will die because there are not enough rescue operations flooding the zone in the widespread area effected by the oil slick from the eastern coast of Texas to the Florida panhandle
BP’s run amok oil gusher could not have come at a worse time for the state bird of Louisiana. This is nesting season here, and the little white pelican babies are being born every day and coming into a world soaked in oil and chemical dispersants. One of the first things they will see is oil soaked boom, washing up on the edges of their island marshlands. The oil that has already washed up is killing the vegetation. It will eventually sink into the bay, another chunk of land lost to coastal erosion.
Here you can clearly see the juvenile pelicans in their nests, while the scared parents try to find a clear patch of water to find uncontaminated fish to feed them. All the efforts to keep oil out of this area have failed, including a double layer of boom. Thousands will die, if they are not rescued.
Here you can see the two layers of boom that has escaped its anchor and washed right up on several pelican nests. Notice how brown the edge of the island looks. Oil and chemicals have already washed up on every island here, burning the marshes from lush green to sticky, dead brown.
Take a close look at what the edge of a marsh looks like with BP’s oil and chemicals all over it.
It is not hard to find thick pools of oil and chemicals along the edge of the marsh, like thick globs of deadly chocolate icing in a French Chocolate Mousse.
A staff member for the Gulf Restoration Network takes a sample of the oil and chemicals.
We ran up on a school of bottlenose dolphins, going for speckled trout bait in water covered in sheen and on the bottom. It could be their last meal, unless they move north and find clear water with uncontaminated fish.
Notice the oil all over the boat, and all that boom piled on idle boats. BP and the Coast Guard idle cleanup crews whenever there is a thunderstorm warning, fearing liability from a crewman being struck by lightening.
Clint Guidry with the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Capt. Glenn Pouche leading media and activist tours around Barataria Bay in coastal Louisiana.
A brown pelican in flight over Barataria Bay in southern Louisiana. Could the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill make them endangered, again?
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Tags: Barataria Bay, BP's Oil Slick Soaks Louisiana Wetlands, Louisiana Shrimp Association
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:59 am
Way to go, Glynn. Good pix! You are the compleat journalist, and I am proud of you.