oily anniversary

•

One year ago today, April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded at 9:45 p.m. CDT. Eleven workers were killed in the blast and the resulting oil spill took three months to stop. It was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Oil tar balls still wash ashore along the Gulf.

How much crude oil was spilled? USA Today reports, "Federal officials estimated the amount at more than 200 million gallons of crude, while acknowledging the estimate could be off by plus or minus 20 million gallons." The mystery is: Where did it all go? Apparently, most of it did not reach the surface. A sizable amount, a cloudy dark mass, is drifting below the surface. The seabed around the site is also a dead zone. The long term affect is unknown.

One year ago, the oil that surfaced impacted thousands of species, but perhaps none more than the brown pelican. Will their population recover?

Here are two more pelican photos by my friend Wayne Mallinger.

•

good-bye 2010

•



We'll close out 2010 with a look at the bird that became the symbol of the biggest environmental story of the old year: the brown pelican.

The Gulf Oil Spill impacted hundreds of coastal species, but perhaps none more visible than this one. By mid-summer, 58 percent of all dead or injured birds collected by rescuers were brown pelicans, a bird that had just been removed from the federal endangered species list last year. Louisiana felt the greatest impact from the oil spill. Pre-disaster, the state played host to between 8,000 and 16,000 breeding pairs of these birds. How many will be there this spring?

Time will tell.

Last spring, Wayne Mallinger sent me this photo of an "oil-free" brown pelican he took in 2009 on a visit. No one knows if this bird is still alive.

Thanks for sharing, Wayne.

- Photo of oil-free brown pelican by Wayne Mallinger

•

Gulf tragedy 2

•



Yesterday we learned that A) more oil is gushing from the gulf drill site than we were originally led to believe—the current revised estimate is 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day, with 50,000 barrels a day being used by some media outlets—and b) photographers were only being given limited access to affected marsh and shorelines for fear (we assume) that the Internet would be flooded with photos of dead or oil-soaked wildlife.

What did Jack Nicholson say in the movie A Few Good Men? Something like, "Truth? You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns."

Local photographer Wayne Mallinger, a native of Florida, wanted to travel south with his camera, but learned his movements might be restricted.

In lieu of such, above is another one of Wayne's brown pelican pictures from last year. Like yesterday's, this bird is oil-free, drying itself in the sun.

Thanks for sharing, Wayne.

- Photo of oil-free brown pelican by Wayne Mallinger.

•

Gulf tragedy 1

•



It's hard here in East Tennessee, living in our lush green state not to feel shock and sadness by the oil spill affecting the Gulf Coast States. We are more than just neighbors, we're all citizens of the world, a world becoming ever more fragile with each passing day. For Wayne Mallinger from Madisonville in Monroe County, it's especially heartbreaking. Wayne spent the first 40 years of his life in Florida, usually within five miles of a beach and still routinely visits his mother near Fort Lauderdale.

Wayne has sent me a series of photos including several of "oil-free" brown pelicans he took last year on a visit. This is one of the avian species we have now all seen on the news of late drenched in oil. Tragic.


Thanks for sharing, Wayne.

- Photo of oil-free brown pelican by Wayne Mallinger

•