Oil slick hits Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana
Oil from a massive slick in the Gulf of Mexico has started washing ashore on an island chain off the coast of Louisiana, US officials have confirmed. Pelicans and other birds covered in oil have been found on the uninhabited Chandeleur islands, which are part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge. A federal maritime agency said there was “oiling all over” the islands. … On Thursday, the US Coast Guard confirmed for the first time oil had made its way past protective booms and was washing up on land. Freemason Island, the southernmost of the “back islands” of the Chandeleur chain, was the first to be hit by a sheen of oil, although there was no evidence yet of medium or heavy crude. Heavier concentrations of crude remain further offshore, and the Coast Guard said weather forecasts suggested it would stay there until the weekend. A spokesman for BP said emergency teams had been sent to Freemason Island, a favourite fishing spot for recreational anglers some 30 miles (50km) off Louisiana’s coast, to deploy inflatable booms to protect its prime marshland. “We are doing everything we can to make sure a major impact doesn’t happen,” John Curry told the AFP news agency. The Associated Press also reported that a pinkish oily substance was washing up to the north on New Harbor Island, on which mangroves serve as roosting habitat for thousands of frigatebirds. Later, an official from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said oil was coming ashore all across the Chandeleur Islands. They are the second oldest national wildlife refuge in the US and home to countless endangered birds. Jeff Dauzat, of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, meanwhile reported that oiled birds, including gannets and brown pelicans, had been found on the barrier chain. No other species have been affected. Fears are also growing that sea life has already been severely affected in the area, which includes vital spawning grounds for fish, shrimp and crabs. “It’s all over the place,” Dustin Chauvin, a shrimp-boat captain from Terrebonne Parish, told AP. “That’s our whole fishing ground. That’s our livelihood.” …
