Sunday, August 15, 2010

Death in the Gulf: Update From Raccoon Island , Louisiana

August 12, 2010 5:04 pm


On the ground with New Orleans-based photographer Jerry Moran: All images from the vicinity of Latitude 29,3.0279N Longitude 90,55.6074W.



FROM JERRY:

My team and I revisited Raccoon Island on August 8 to find more of the same from our previous visit on July 18. The difference this time was that there were not as many birds, my guess is at least 60 percent less. But we witnessed just as much death if not more than on our previous visit. We saw dead pelicans, seagulls, bullredfish, drum…you name it, it was dead on the beach.







Oil had hit Raccoon Island the previous week, and it was obvious that the island had been manicured. BP had set up tents on the two adjoining islands. All of the boom that had been on the island and on top of the jetties was gone, and the island was flat where it once had more of a natural terrain.





A lot of dead birds we saw had their stomach cavities exposed and a brown sludge covered the inside, with the scent of oil. Necropsies will be performed on the specimens retrieved. We also took a sample of the green sludge the birds were drinking in the middle of the island.

More updates to come.






© Smith Stag, LLC 2010 – All Rights Reserved


2 comments: