Animals still covered in oil months after Gulf spill

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 15, 2010
(AP)  A baby sea turtle escaped from the jaws of a shark, only to get stuck in oil spilled from BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico. A young dolphin apparently was attacked by his mother, then swam into oil. The animals are among thousands rescued since more than 200 million gallons of oil began gushing from the Macondo well about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi River Delta, and among dozens still at Gulf Coast rescue centers five months after the well was capped. Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, rescue officials say 2,079 birds, 456 sea turtles, some terrapins and two dolphins have been plucked from the oil. Another 2,263 birds, 18 turtles and four dolphins were found dead with oil on them. All are being dissected to tell whether it was the crude from the BP well that killed them. … At the Audubon Aquatics Center in New Orleans, staff are rehabilitating a young dolphin that had oil all over his head and body when he was stranded Sept. 2 at Fourchon Beach on the Louisiana coast southwest of the city. But the dolphin apparently had not swallowed or breathed in any oil, said Audubon Nature Institute spokeswoman Meghan Calhoun. Beneath the oil, tooth scratches covered his body. Another dolphin – likely his mother – had attacked him, Calhoun said. He was about 2 years old, the age at which dolphin pups leave their mothers, she wrote in an e-mail. “His debilitation appears to have been caused by his mother, possibly being a little forceful in convincing him he needed to move on,” Calhoun said. The dolphins’ muscles seized up in pain, so tightly that he couldn’t swim. He needed both physical therapy and muscle therapy, she said. “We had to show him how to move his tail in an up-and-down fashion instead of side to side” (like a shark), she said. …

Animals Still Covered in Oil Months after Spill