Graph of the Day: Daily Recovery Numbers for Oiled Birds and Turtles, 9 June 2010 – 5 August 2010

By Paul Rioux, The Times-Picayune
Sunday, August 08, 2010, 10:00 AM More than three weeks after BP capped its gushing oil well, skimming operations have all but stopped and federal scientists say just a quarter of the oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico. But wildlife officials are rounding up more oiled birds than ever as fledgling birds get stuck in the residual goo and rescuers make initial visits to rookeries they had avoided disturbing during nesting season. Before BP plugged the well with a temporary cap on July 15, an average of 37 oiled birds were being collected dead or alive each day. Since then, the figure has nearly doubled to 71 per day, according to a Times-Picayune review of daily wildlife rescue reports. The figures for sea turtles have climbed even higher, with more oiled turtles recovered in the past 10 days than during the spill’s first three months. While the increase in turtles remains a mystery, wildlife officials say there are several factors at play in the seemingly counterintuitive surge in the number of oiled birds recovered since the leak was stopped. For starters, it took longer for the oil to reach nesting colonies in coastal marshes, creating a lag in the spill’s effect on sea birds, said Kyla Hastie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She said rescuers also had steered clear of some rookeries until recently. “We’re just now getting into some of the really sensitive areas,” Hastie said. “If we had done so earlier, we could have done more harm than good.” …

Oil spill plugged, but more oiled birds than ever are being found via Apocadocs