http://animals.change.org/blog/view/bp_tries_to_block_photos_of_dead_wildlife

by Laura Goldman
June 05, 2010 07:30 AM (PT)
For animal lovers, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Gulf spill is the oil-drenched wildlife washing up on shore. If you’re too horrified to look at any photos, you’re in luck – BP doesn’t want you to see them.

As of Friday morning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s tally of dead animals collected in the Gulf area was 527 birds, 235 sea turtles (six to nine times the average rate), and 30 mammals, including dolphins. Yesterday morning, the spill washed over Queen Bess Island (called “Bird Island” by locals), which is a habitat for Louisiana brown pelicans, the state bird that was once an endangered species. Forty-one of the birds were coated with oil, and that number is expected to rise.

Have you seen the terrible pictures of all this carnage? Neither have I. And neither has anyone else.

Wonder why? The New York Daily News reported on Wednesday that BP has ordered its contractors not to share pictures or otherwise publicize the scores of dead and injured wildlife.

An unnamed BP contractor gave a reporter a very different tour from the one presented to President Obama during his recent visit. Among the “highlights,” if that’s what they can be called, was a decomposing dolphin that the worker said had been found filled with oil.
The shoreline grass of Queen Bess Island was covered with stricken marine life, some dead and some struggling to breathe. The normally white heads of pelicans were dark with oil.

The worker said BP was insistent it didn’t want any photos of the dead animals. “There is a lot of coverup for BP,” the worker told the reporter. “They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence.”

As extra assurance that most of us will never see photographic or any other evidence of the true extent of the carnage, Louisiana residents said BP quickly whisks off dead and injured wildlife to inaccessible buildings and offshore ships. Out of sight, out of mind … but forever in locals’ memories.

New York Daily News reporters trying to get a closer look at the disaster were escorted from a beach by police who said they were taking orders from BP. Even Louisiana residents have been required to sign non-disclosures.

Really, BP? Did you not get the memo this isn’t a police state? You may be able to control politicians by lining their pockets, but your bucks stop there. This disaster is going to affect all of us, and we have every right to see the extent of the damage.

In an encouraging development, this week Charlie Riedel of the Associated Press was somehow able to bypass BP’s myriad roadblocks and snap some appalling photos. They may make us want to shield our eyes, but it’s important we don’t bury our heads just as BP would love for us to do.

Photo Credit: marinephotobank

Laura Goldman is an award-winning writer and longtime animal advocate who lives in the Los Angeles area with two pit bull mix pound pups.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

by David Helvarg President, Blue Frontier Campaign

Thanks David; you’re way with words goes right to my heart.  DV

It was a windy day, feisty like the gal. Although she used to say I never looked happier than when I was coming out of the water after getting beaten up by the waves, the ocean can also provide solace, remind us that we are part of something larger, even when large parts of our own souls have drifted away.

Five years later I returned to Rodeo Beach where oil had come ashore. Behind the orange plastic fencing and pollution warning signs fifty-eight contract workers in yellow hazmat suits were removing oil stained boulders and scraping away the contaminated sand with a front loader called a Bobcat. We’d seen real bobcats around there and I just hoped they didn’t find any dead seabirds to feed on as toxins tend to bio-accumulate up the food chain. I’d come to the beach for a Coast Guard press conference before going out with them to do a damage assessment in parts of Richardson Bay where Nancy and I used to live and it all felt like sacrilege.

This was during the 2007 Cosco Busan spill when a large container ship hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge spilling 53,500 gallons of toxic bunker fuel into the Bay, though the initial estimates by the Ship’s captain were far lower. Three years later you can still find remnant oil in the wetlands near where I live and the Bay’s herring fishery has yet to recover.

According to conservative government estimates the BP Deepwater Horizon’s almost mile-deep wellhead has pumped 500 times a Cosco Busan spill worth of raw petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico since the rig exploded in April.

I remember after Hurricane Katrina spending an evening with a dozen displaced Cajun fishermen who were living in a carport below a three-story office building in Bell Chasse Louisiana. They slept at night on dry patches of carpet in one of the water damaged law offices above. They insisted on sharing the food and beer they had in big coolers with me and told me they weren’t sure they’d move their families back to Buras or Empire or other storm devastated towns I’d seen in Plaquemines Parrish where the world had turned upside down with boats on the land and houses in the water. They would keep catching fish out of the Bayou however. Of that they were certain. Now their livelihoods are at risk from BP’s oil spill as are the wetlands that have sustained their people and culture since 1699 when Pierre Le Moyne landed on the Gulf Coast and reported an abundant game, “and some rather good oysters.”

Oil, unlike some chemicals and vast amounts of plastic polymers we’re also dumping into the sea, will biodegrade over time. In about 40 years much of the damage we’re seeing as the BP spill begins to come ashore will naturally remediate. Of course by then changing weather, ocean productivity and sea level rise linked to the burning of oil and coal will also have radically altered the 40 percent of America’s coastal wetlands now at immediate risk.

I’m deeply tired of wake up calls that don’t seem to wake us up to our intimate and essential connections to the everlasting sea. If the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice linked to climate change won’t do it, if the industrial overfishing of the world’s oceans that threaten commercial extinction of edible fish by mid-century won’t do it, if the loss of over a third of the world’s coral reefs in the blink of an eye in which I’ve lived my life won’t, then I’m not sure an oil spill the size of Connecticut spread throughout the water column and still growing will do it either.

What’s most frustrating is the solutions are known. If you stop killing fish faster than they can reproduce, if you stop producing 100 million tons of single use plastic every year, if you don’t build and dump on salt marshes, mangroves and other protective coastal habitat, if you repair aging sewage systems and don’t use storm drains as toilets, if you move from oil and gas to new energy systems including offshore wind, waves and tides, you can turn the tide. All it takes is our personal and political will.

After Nancy died I thought about returning to war reporting because I knew it was an effective antidote to depression. Instead I founded a non-profit group dedicated to the ocean and seaweed (marine grassroots) organizing thinking that while we’ll probably always have wars we may not always have healthy and abundant seas – or coastal wetlands. I don’t know if it’s too late. All I know for certain is if we don’t try we lose and this salty blue world of ours is too beautiful, scary and sacred to lose.

Special thanks to  David Helvarg

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118852434823395

The President’s Council on Environmental Quality  is soliciting comments, questions, and other input on Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas exploration and development.   Deadline is June 17th, 2010.   Here’s the link for more info and to post your comments.  It’s easy… go for it.   DV 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/nepa/mms-review-submit

Here are the comments I submitted.  Feel free use any or all of it in your comments:

June 7, 2010

Associate Director for NEPA Oversight

Council on Environmental Quality

722 Jackson Place NW

Washington, DC 20503

Cc: hgreczmiel@ceq.eop.gov

Dear Sirs/Ms.

I write to you today as a native Floridian who has worked for the past 24 years to protect coral reefs from my home in Key West, Florida.  My husband and I founded Reef Relief, a small grassroots environmental organization and even received a Point of Light from President Bush Sr.  We have recently retired so what follows are my personal comments based on that experience.

Every year during that time, I travelled to Washington, D.C.  to meet with our Congressmen and deliver resolutions from all levels of government, business and conservation organizations in the Florida Keys opposing oil and gas development affecting the Florida Keys.  I participated in planning efforts and supported the Outer Continental Shelf Coalition comprised of organizations from all over America that actively worked to oppose the current policy of offshore oil and gas exploration and development in fragile marine areas along our coasts.  We consistently encouraged a progressive, thoughtful energy policy for America based on sustainable, renewable, nonpolluting sources such as solar and wind and promoted conservation of energy use by all Americans.

Now the worst case scenario is upon us as the BP blowout has escalated to the worst environmental catastrophe in America’s history.   What we have been saying all along has now been revealed in graphic detail to all Americans:  our country makes decisions on this important energy source while deliberately dominated  by corporate oil interests with little or no regard for our oceans, marine life and coral reefs that provide so much to all of us.  Not to mention the considerably economic value of our fisheries, tourism, and related industries throughout Florida, Alaska, and other fragile and valuable coastal areas.   As a result, American is entrenched in a serious oil habit, with little incentive for alternatives. 

Annual oil and gas development moratoriums were passed over the years, but no permanent protection has been achieved and now our worst fears have become a reality in the Gulf of Mexico.  And the Gulf Loop Current is carrying it into the Florida Keys.  It’s easy to say “I told you so.”  What’s more important right now is to get it right, before any more time passes and further losses are incurred.

I support and incorporate the following recommendations of the Center for Biologic Diversity as follows.  My  comments in italics expand upon those comments of the Center:

1. A full housecleaning at Interior and even the President’s staff  should begin now to replace all staff with direct ties to the oil and gas industry with qualified, knowledgeable candidates without a conflict of interest and a true desire to serve the public interest. Perhaps it should start with Mr. Salazar who knew or should have known what was going on in MMS. 

Remove former BP executive Sylvia Baca from her job as deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management. Secretary Salazar expressed outrage at the Inspector General’s finding earlier this week that the revolving door between the oil industry and the Minerals Management Service has undermined the agency’s effectiveness and credibility. He did not mention, however, that in June 2009 he himself appointed a BP executive to oversee the Minerals Management Service.    “Sylvia Baca is a classic example of the revolving door between oil companies and the MMS,” said Suckling. “It was a terrible judgment call to appoint her; it is politically catastrophic to keep her. If Salazar is serious about reform, he needs to start with his own interest-conflicted appointments.”   2. Ban the use of environmental waivers for offshore exploration and production plans. Such waivers are designed for very small-impact projects such as constructing hiking trails and outhouses. There is no possible scenario in which an offshore drilling project – whether deepwater, ultradeepwater, or shallow water – can be considered a non-threat to the environment, economy, and endangered species.   It is actually a disservice to the bidders to allow plans that would be denied at a later phase of the permitting process to proceed any further than this point.  It creates an inference of acceptability when in fact, the plan may be inherently dangerous, faulty, environmentally flawed or otherwise inappropriate for the site proposed.

3. Rescind all drilling approvals issued with environmental waivers. Hundreds of dangerous offshore oil platforms are operating today in the Gulf of Mexico without having undergone any environmental review. These dangerous drilling projects are operating illegally and threaten the Gulf with additional oil spills. Just today, a new spill was cited in the Gulf. Is anyone in a position of authority doing any monitoring of current activities?  This should apply to Alaska oil industry operations as well.  Just last week a spill occurred along the Alaska pipeline that could have been prevented. Offshore platforms are not the only vulnerable oil and gas operations currently permitted by MMS.

4. Rescind the Interior Department’s plan to open up new areas on the Atlantic Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska to offshore oil drilling. The president’s announcement, made on March 31, 2010, three weeks before the BP explosion, was made on the false premise that offshore oil drilling is safe.  Many of these areas have been under Congressional moratoria for years; there’s a good reason for protecting these valuable coastal areas and they are also inconsistent with certain existing military operations. And now we know we cannot depend upon false plans submitted by the industry that it can be done safely. 
5. Permanently ban all new offshore oil drilling, beginning in Alaska. As a nation, we need to transition to clean energy sources such as sun and wind as fast as possible. Pushing forward with new, dangerous, and dirty offshore oil drilling sends the wrong signal to energy companies and technology developers. Continued subsidizing of Big Oil is a major hindrance to our nation’s development of clean energy.  Florida is the Sunshine State; why isn’t solar a major industry here?  Public utilities should be encouraged by government policy to invest in solar instead of dangerous nuclear power, which still has no satisfactory long term disposal solution. 

6.  Require that current oil lessees fund the development and adoption of safe, alternative oil spill planning and deployment technologies such as microbes and other emerging solutions to oil pollution.  Oil spill response and deployment planning is glaringly absent from the advances so proudly espoused by the oil industry.  The same strategies that were used 30 years ago are still being relied upon by the industry for the Gulf spill today without regard to the consequences of drilling deeper.  The dispersant being used by BP is banned in the UK, and is deathly for coral reef ecosystems. Using dispersants in areas with coral reefs and other highly productive ocean environments destroys all sea life exposed to it; it is taken up into the food chain as it settles on the bottom; it prevents new growth on the bottom and smothers all existing life, and then creates  residual continuing impacts on marine life reproduction and growth patterns for generations.   The  strategy of letting oil come ashore beaches and then cleaning it up is counterproductive and ineffective. Oil is still found in the sand along the shore in Valdez. It should be removed at the source of the spill immediately.  Burning oil on the surface creates unacceptable air pollution consequences.  Plans should be implemented immediately rather than waiting for accidental oil spills to damage marinelife and shorelines. If we must allow drilling while we transition to sustainable energy sources, it should be contingent on ecofriendly spill and blowout cleanup plans.

7. End all tax exemptions and advantages to the oil and gas industry, which pays less in U.S. taxes than the average American family.   There is no rationale for global energy giants to receive tax breaks from our country when we are in an economic crisis.  All royalties due to the US by such companies should be closely monitored for compliance and payments enforced in a timely manner.  This oversight has been sadly lacking on the part of MMS.

8.  Insure complete press access to spill sites. Freedom of the press is the hallmark of our democracy.   Currently, reporters are being excluded from BP spill sites on the basis of safety, yet they will not let clean-up workers wear masks. And the U.S. Coast Guard is helping to enforce their private rules to public shorelines.   This is a double standard designed to restrict public knowledge of their actions. Workers going to the hospital for treatment of spill-related symptoms have their clothes confiscated by BP.    

9.  Increase government oversight of how the cleanup operations occur.  Even as President Obama says he is in control, BP continues to do as it pleases.  We should encourage the utilization of local, onsite knowledgeable resources with the capacity to implement cleanup plans immediately.  BP,  for example,  is using one firm to treat injured seabirds, when in fact, there are local organizations in all coastal areas that have the facilities, expertise and ability to do so.   This should apply to injured sea turtles and dolphins as well.  Local boaters in the Florida Keys could be mobilized to boom off all the wildlife refuges and coral reefs.   Supporting the local economy is the least the oil giants could do in the event of a spill that impacts many coastal economies.

10.  Invest in an aggressive program of developing renewal energy for America and encourage all Americans to conserve energy.  Now.   

Thank you for the opportunity to present my viewpoint. I hope you can improve government especially as it relates to offshore oil and gas development in America.  There is no better time. 

Very truly yours,

DeeVon Quirolo 

dquirolo@gmail.com

1223 Royal Street

Key West, Florida 33040