Jump to content
Ornithology Exchange (brought to you by the Ornithological Council)

Still Counting Gulf Spill’s Dead Birds


Recommended Posts

Image
A flock of gulls rose as an oil spill response boat passed by at the mouth of Barataria Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.
After the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew out in the Gulf of Mexico some 50 miles from the nearest land, responders were left to cope with a search area of nearly 40,000 square miles, as well as wind and currents that kept evidence of damage away from the more easily searchable coastline.

 

Patrollers recovered fewer than 3,000 dead birds. But some had suspected that many more were unaccounted for.

 

Now a team of scientists has tried to quantify the extent of damage inflicted on the gulf’s bird population from the oil spill caused by the explosion. Based on models using publicly available data, the studies estimated that about 800,000 birds died in coastal and offshore waters.

 

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/science/still-counting-gulf-spills-dead-birds.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...