Thursday, June 17, 2010

What next?



Drew works for the ABA and is down on the gulf monitoring efforts to save birds affected by the oil spill. His blog is one I read for up-to-date information on the recovery efforts and today's update makes me heartsick...

Help me understand how this, too, can be happening?

5 comments:

R.Powers said...

It takes more than telling someone and posting some flagged stakes. I protected Tern and Skimmer nests on Florida beaches as a NPS Ranger and we used signage, simple informative and forceful signage that informed and warned people to stay out of the designated area.

And I patrolled the area with my ticket book.

The failure here is communication. The guy in the video says they informed all parties, but his video shows no signage on the beach.
All that has to happen is for one link in that chain to fail and the laborers on the beach will not see the flags as any kind of barrier.
A tern nest is one of the most "invisible" bird nests there is ... you have to grab the public's attention with more than some flagged poles.

What a difference some signs and horizontal (between the poles) flagging would have made.

And ... where was a game warden to patrol and be there at the start of operations so the workers would be sure to know.

Whether it's seaturtle nests or tern nests, people DO NOT see flagged poles as a barrier. Like it or not, that is a reality.

It's a communication and enforcement issue.

Sorry to go so long, but it pisses me off.

Unknown said...

This is so disheartening and disgusting. I hope the terns can successfully re-nest. We all know they need all the help they can get, now.

Forest Green said...

This is horrible horrible horrible!!!

Let's put the gulf oil spill into some perspective. BP punched a hole into an oil reserve estimated to contain 100,000,000 barrels of oil. That amount of oil will supply the United States for 5 days. You read that right. Just FIVE DAYS! This whole huge, horrible mess is all over a 5 day supply of oil.

I am just sick about it.

Kathie Brown said...

This is heart breaking! I am so glad he documented this! But how can we stop this? Should birders converge and guard these areas with our bodies? OMG!

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