Pelicans being cared for at International Bird Rescue. (IBR photo)

Dear readers:
I just received the news release below announcing the 40th anniversary of International Bird Rescue (IBR). Wow! It’s hard to believe it has been 40 years since that wonderful organization came into existence in 1971 as a result of the oil spill in San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate Bridge.

I was Curator of the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, at the time, and volunteers from throughout the Bay Area, including our own wildlife rescue team, jumped into the middle of that oily mess to help care for the thousands of birds that were oiled as a result of that spill. A few months after the spill, a few of us got to talking about the need for an organization that dealt with oiled wildlife … and IBR was born.

I was briefly on the original IBR board of directors, so we could have enough experienced wildlife care people on the board so we could incorporate as a nonprofit organization. Bird rescue has come a long, wonderful way since then, and is now THE leader in oiled wildlife rescue and rehabilitation in the world. Please read on … I think you’ll find it very interesting. This is a very special organization! /Gary
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Oiled great horned owl from tank farm that leaked oil being cleaned. (IBR photo)

I received the news release below (and photographs) from my friends at International Bird Rescue and thought it might interest you. This organization is the GREATEST!! /Gary

California-based oiled bird rescue organization turns 40

The marking of an anniversary could not have been more poignant for California-based oil spill experts, International Bird Rescue, whose team played a key role in the response to last year’s Gulf oil spill.

The 40th anniversary of the wildlife group, formed in response to a San Francisco Bay oil spill in 1971, fell on the same day as the anniversary of the Gulf oil spill. Bird Rescue has responded to aquatic bird emergencies in all corners of the globe, from oiled common murres and bald eagles in Alaska following the Exxon Valdez to 20,000 penguins caught in an oil spill in South Africa.
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Gulf rig fire & resulting oil spill (US Coast Guard)

Video: “One Year After the Oil Spill”

A powerful new video by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, shares footage of birds after the oil spill and notes the power of observation and citizen science to advance conservation. You must watch this: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/page.aspx?pid=1855

Cornell’s oil spill website also has a number of other interesting new videos about the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig rupture that ultimately released more than 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

One year after the spill, tar balls of oil are still washing ashore onto Louisiana beaches, even as we speak.  /Gary

Gulf rig fire (US Coast Guard)

I think the Center for Biological Diversity bring up some excellent points. What do you think? /Gary

Offshore Oil Drilling Reforms Are Positive Step, But Big Questions Remain
The Obama administration announced Monday (Aug. 16) that it will no longer exempt certain deepwater offshore oil-drilling projects from environmental review. However, non-deepwater drilling operations may continue to be approved without environmental review. Also, deepwater wells and rigs already approved under the faulty environmental review process will not necessarily have to seek full National Environmental Policy Act or Endangered Species Act compliance.

In response, Center for Biological Diversity Executive Director Kierán Suckling issued the following statement:
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Gulf Oil Spill. Photo by Flickr user NASA Goddard Space Flight Center used under a Creative Commons License

The first thing I saw when I picked up my morning paper today was an Associated Press story on the front page:

Most Gulf oil gone, feds say
“WASHINGTON — With a startling report that some researchers call more spin than science, the government said Wednesday that the mess made by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is mostly gone already.

“On the same day they trumpeted success in plugging up the leaking well with drilling mud, federal officials announced that nearly 70 percent of the oil spilled dissolved naturally, or was burned, skimmed, dispersed or captured, with almost nothing left to see — at least on top of the water.”

Before you get all excited and jump up and down because they said the  oil is gone, please keep one thing in mind. Just because they say it’s gone doesn’t necessarily make it so. One of the reasons oil companies love to dump chemical dispersants on oil that has spilled in water is that the dispersants do just that … they disperse the oil and make it go away … by breaking the oil up up into smaller drops that sink below the surface of the water. In other words, out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Before you come to any conclusions on this, read the following news release I just received from Texas Tech University.  /Gary
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Gulf disaster (US Coast Guard photo)

Members of the American Bird Conservancy staff recently returned from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill area and issued a report, “Gulf Oil Spill, Field Survey Report and Recommendations, July 19, 2010,” on their findings.

Here is the report: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/ABC_Gulf_Oil_Spill_Report.pdf

The American Bird Conservancy is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. You can find out more about them at http://www.abcbirds.org/

You should definitely read the report. It’s an eye-opener. /Gary

Heavily oiled brown pelicans from Grand Isle, Louisiana. Photo by Flickr user IBRRC used under a Creative Commons License.

BP is beginning to test a new tighter-fitting cap on its gushing wellhead. They hope it will stop the millions (?) of gallons of oil that have been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico during our worst-ever oil spill.

“Cross your fingers,” I heard someone from BP being quoted as saying on the radio news station as I drove to work this morning.

The “Cross Your Fingers” containment system. Why didn’t they use that in the beginning? Maybe if they’d crossed their fingers back when they first discovered the spill the Gulf of Mexico wouldn’t have turned all gooey black by now.

I think we ALL better cross our fingers, this time. /Gary

Baby birds in nest

Just got this (below) from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Like wild birds? You might consider getting involved in Cornell’s NestWatch project. /Gary

Will the Gulf Spill Affect Backyard Birds?
Scientists ask bird watchers to monitor nests.

Ithaca, NY – As oil washes ashore along the Gulf Coast, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/netcommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1478) is asking birders to keep an eye on nesting birds — not just near water, but hundreds of miles inland.
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Oiled bird. AP Photo by Charlie Riedel.

Gary:
I thought you might be interested in this story (below) that the Gulf drilling moratorium has been ordered lifted by a federal judge.
Miyoko, The Center for Biological Diversity

Miyoko:
Judge Feldman’s ruling is flirting with disaster and should be appealed by the federal government. Many thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity for jumping into this. The judge has obviously not thought this out. There should be no more deepwater drilling for oil until they figure out how to deal with any future spills. To do so is stupid. They can’t even deal with the present mess. /Gary
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Sperm whale. Photo by Flickr user strange ones used under a Creative Commons License.

From the weekly e-newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity, June 3, 2010:

To stop the oil-spill response from making the catastrophe even worse for wildlife, this Tuesday (June 1) the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for not protecting endangered species from the nearly one million gallons of toxic chemical dispersants it approved for use in the Gulf.
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