Defenders of Wildlife Blog

I have just returned from the Gulf of Mexico, where the growing disaster from the British Petroleum oil rig blowout threatens some of our most precious wildlife, fisheries and national wildlife refuges. Bearing witness to this epic environmental disaster as it slowly unfolds has been surreal to say the least. It seems impossible to believe that the same beautiful white sand beaches I explored could be blackened by oil in as soon as a few days. Read the full story

Posted by Krista Schlyer, a photographer for Enviro-pic.org and member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

From the sky, the Earth’s water courses harken the human circulatory system. The resemblance is both troubling and appropriate as they serve much the same purpose: they carry liquids and nutrients to vital systems in both bodies, but they can also carry poisons. When a human being ingests poison, some is absorbed in the stomach, and much is distributed to the vital organs by the blood vessels. For the Earth, the constant motion of water through its passageways can take oil and chemical dispersants to its most vulnerable and essential systems.

Last night, a flight over some of the coastal wetlands and barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico brought home the terror of this reality. I was flying on an assignment for Defenders of Wildlife. The organization is trying to assess the current damage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and to get a sense of the magnitude of the threat it poses to wildlife and habitat resources. Read the full story

I woke up this morning in Fairhope, Alabama.  It seemed so appropriate, staying in a town named Fairhope.  As we wait for this disaster to unfold, we all are embracing any sort of “fair hope” that damage caused by the spill won’t be as bad as anticipated.    

We learned late yesterday from our board member Jeff Corwin, who is down here reporting on the spill for CBS, that oil had reached the shores of the Chandeleur Islands in Louisiana.  This morning I turned on the news to hear that they had just started to lower the dome over the oil leak.  The reporter said that it will take a couple of days to get the dome placed over the leak and we should know by Monday if it works. Let’s cross our fingers that it does!

Read the full story

Pelicans with Boom (Krista Schlyer)

That’s what the people all along the Gulf coast here are doing now. The locals, the reporters, the researchers and the wildlife. We are all waiting. We spent the morning in a coffee shop in Mobile with Julie Cart of the LA Times and Steve Gorman of Reuters. They are waiting too. Waiting for the spill to reach shore and we all know it’s coming. Worrying about the impacts once it does. And the longer we wait, the more personal it becomes. Even if we are not from around here, now that we have been here, it has become intensely and disturbingly personal.

So while we waited, we traveled across Mobile Bay this morning on the ferry, passing numerous gas rigs easily within eyesight, Coast Guard boats and thousands of feet of booms that have been laid out to protect this valuable shore line and the wildlife that call this beautiful place home. Brown pelicans look out onto the water from the docks and jetties and were flying around overhead. The few folks that were on the ferry with us all had stories to tell. One very talkative gentleman who makes his living in the seafood industry was concerned about the future. He said he was sure this spill would change the shrimping industry for decades if not more. He was certain he would not see it the same for the rest of his lifetime (and he is only in his mid-50s!). Another man was telling us about his invention, an environmentally safe chemical that could be sprayed on the coastline so the oil would not soak into the sand. Wouldn’t it be nice if it really works??? While we were on the ferry, one of our staff in DC decided to shave her head to donate her hair to the oil spill efforts. Others were planning to as well. Another staffer was making arrangements to collect hair from dog groomers. Everyone had a story to tell and everyone wanted to do something to help. And still, all of us were waiting. Read the full story

Check out this video of reporter Glynn Wilson of the Locust Fork News-Journal interviewing Defenders executive vice president Jamie Rappaport Clark, on May 5 at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama.

Defenders of Wildlife’s Executive Vice President (and former head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Jamie Rappaport Clark filed this video report from Bon Secour National Wildlife in Alabama, an important nesting area for threatened and endangered sea turtles. Watch the video to learn how the Gulf oil spill crisis may impact these sensitive seafarers.

Defenders of Wildlife Reports from the Gulf Oil Spill