Wildlife rescue under way as oil gushes into Gulf

Federal, state agencies work to ensure safe seafood supply

As efforts to contain the largest oil spill in U.S. history continued with no immediate end in sight, the grim toll on wildlife along the Gulf Coast was slowly being tallied.

The government’s wildlife impact assessment as of June 13 showed that 725 birds, 324 sea turtles, and 39 marine mammals had been found dead along the Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi coasts. Just over 600 animals had been recovered alive, but only 43 had so far been returned to the wild. Not all the injuries and deaths were attributable to the spill, the report stated, and the causes of death would be determined at a later date.

The number of wildlife injured or killed as a consequence of the oil spill will surely rise, as the Deepwater Horizon well continued spewing into the Gulf of Mexico as of late June. Read More…