Outdoorsmen in anguish as oil closes in on waterfowl habitat

By Noel F. Pilie
Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 4:42 PM Waterfowl along our coast are in mortal danger as the BP rig disaster continues to gush crude oil. The press has concentrated mainly on Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican, and rightfully so. This magnificent bird, brought back from near-extinction in Louisiana, numbers about 12,000 to 13,000 breeding pairs plus clutches of two eggs and fledglings. However, more devastation is about to unfold. As conservationists with a focus on wetlands and waterfowl, the Louisiana Waterfowl Alliance is in anguish at the thought of what might happen when, in just a few months, migratory ducks begin to arrive on our coast where already our resident mottled ducks are being impacted by the oil. Between 3 million and 4 million ducks spend the winter in Louisiana. The majority settle in our coastal marshes. In addition, many millions more pass through and spend time in coastal Louisiana from August to April. About 50,000 to 60,000 mottled ducks are year-round residents. Non-migratory, they live in a limited habitat range in costal Louisiana, so they have been very vulnerable to the oncoming oil. Additional millions of geese, coots, rails, snipe and other shore birds depend on our coastal marshes during late summer, fall, and winter; many live there all year. The total bird life in the area is impossible to count, but migratory waterfowl usage is somewhere near 13 million. If the oil is not stopped soon and the shoreline cleaned up rapidly, the result could be tragic. Miles of our coastal marshes have been coated by oil for more than six weeks now. Little has been removed yet. Oil is drifting just offshore of many more miles of coastline. And more is on the way. During fall and winter, large rafts of ducks — numbering in the thousands — rest just offshore in the daytime exactly where the oil is now, and it will only spread more. All it will take is a small tropical storm to force the oil over most of our southeastern coastal wetlands. Meteorologists are predicting an active hurricane season. Oiling of migratory waterfowl is not only possible — it is likely inevitable. And this is to a large extent in areas that are not accessible except by airboat, making it almost impossible to rescue and clean birds. Untold numbers of waterfowl could and probably will be affected, resulting in a tremendous impact on duck populations and migration patterns for years to come, if not forever, in the central and Mississippi flyways. For those of us who love the outdoors, this is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. All of this is in addition to severe damage and further, permanent catastrophic loss of these wetlands, vital and irreplaceable for many reasons, and the main wintering habitat of those waterfowl that would still try to come to Louisiana in the future. For those who cherish the beauty of our coastal homeland and our outdoor heritage, this horrifying loss is almost impossible to quantify. …

Outdoorsmen in anguish as oil closes in on waterfowl habitat: A guest column by Noel F. Pilie