The Gulf of Mexico
Make Mine Bluegreen's
Oil Spill Alert News update
We have been getting calls from folks , even outside of Florida with inquiries of how to volunteer for shoreline cleanups; While the oil is far from the West Central Shores of Florida it is still a very real concern and is far from being over. So we will do our best to keep everyone up to date on the movements of the spill, where it makes land fall, what you can do to help and who has immediate calls for volunteers.
Please understand that Make Mine Bluegreen is still very small and very young and is not likely to do anything on its own but rather we are scrambling to put plans into action as we speak to gather supplies and a volunteer roster that we may add our forces with others. The frantic part is few in Florida have this sort of experience, but we all know what we need to do in order to make ourselves available to the larger response teams. Please share this information with as many people as you can. It will take many hands over a long period of time to rescue our coast. We know it’s coming please don’t wait ‘til it lands to get involved. The 2007 oil spill in San Francisco only lost 58,000 gallons of oil and yet it caused the death of over 25,000 marine and coastal animals and cost some 70Million dollars in damages
We are collecting HAIR CLIPPINGS and STOCKINGS for oil clean up, DAWN SOAP, OLD TOWELS and BLANKETS for animal rescue, TRASH BAGS, and as the cleanup begins we will be looking for WATER and SNACKS for the volunteers. Donation for other needs that will likely come up. And above all else we will be needing VOLUNTEERS, even if it’s just one day a week, one weekend, every now and then or half a day, we will need you. A FLYER HAS BEEN ATTACHED FOR YOU TO TAKE TO YOUR LOCAL SALON. THANKS
SCOUT TROOPS and SOCIAL CLUBS Have we got a job for you. (its good to be a Girl Scout), cause we’ve got some crafty ideas on how to create hair mats from the donated hair. So if your troop wants to help out I am willing to come out to teach basket weaving and latch stitching with the hair. Supplies needed will be latch hook fabric, waxed cord, Elmer’s glue and large eye craft needles. Oh yeah and the hair. Contact me ASAP so we can start getting these made and delivered to affected areas.
Recent news announced that oil was spilling at an average of 5000 gallons per day, But that was a misquote as the spill is an estimated 5000 BARRELS per day (210,000 gallons). At this time the oil slick has reached Louisiana’s shores, Wind shifts over the weekend will likely carry the oil North/Northeast and will make land fall In Mississippi, Alabama and Pensacola by Monday morning.
BP Petroliam began hiring cleanup crews on Friday in Pensacola to implement starting plans of 500 personal to begin shoreline clean ups. And is also calling on fishing vessels for boom deployment and control.
Already some 50 miles of booms have been laid out, but high winds are causing oil tainted waves to splash right over the booms and already the slick is over 100 miles wide
National Fisheries has opened up shrimp and oyster season in some area to allow fisherman to harvest what they can before the oil devastates the area; While coastal parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard have been closed by the Health Department due to already present oil contamination. A local science group is also harvesting oysters for testing and for future reseeding.
ORGANIZATIONS CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE HELP:
PRESS RELEASE:
The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is asking for the community's help to prepare for injured birds and coastal cleanup as the disastrous Gulf oil spill moves towards Florida. The sanctuary is asking for volunteers and items to be donated.
The Sanctuary staff and volunteers were a significant workforce in the disastrous Tampa Bay 1993 oil spill and has experienced avian care staff on standby to assist Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research.
The sanctuary is a local drop-off center for the needed donations of linens, kennels, towels, sheets, dawn detergent, pepto-bismol and toothbrushes. Please bring the items to the sanctuary at 18328 Gulf Blvd., Indian Shores. Please see seabirdsanctuary.com or call 727-391-6211 for more information.
Thanks so much!
Michelle Glean Simoneau / Marketing & Public Relations Manager Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary / 18328 Gulf Blvd., Indian Shores, FL 33785
727-391-2473 / 727-460-5525 Cell
Fax: 727-399-2923 / Michelle@seabirdsanctuary.com
Seabirdsanctuary.com
Another article:
FYI - Save Our Seabirds (SOS) is mobilizing.
Sarasota bird rescue on standby to help with oil spill
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SARASOTA – The group "Save Our Seabirds" is preparing to send a team up north to rescue and clean birds from the Louisiana oil spill, and they're asking the Suncoast for help.
The Sarasota wildlife rehab center says it got notice that the oil could hit Florida's coast as early as Friday. Save Our Seabirds says it got a call from British Petroleum Wednesday morning to be on stand-by, and that the oil spill looks like it's on a path to hit the Florida panhandle. Five staff members and 54 volunteers say they are ready to move on a moment's notice.
"Oh, it's got to be done immediately; if we get there too late, it's just going to be over for the bird," says Eileen Devlin.
"Right now, we're still on pins and needles. We're mobilizing in Wimauma trying to get everything ready. We don't know what to expect when we get there," says wildlife rehabilitator Nancy Alexander.
They're prepared for the worst. Previous experience with oil spills has the staff ready to mobilize a difficult rescue mission. "We have to do each feather and try to get it down to the down feather, so we actually have to really soak them up," says Alexander.
And that requires putting each bird through a series of baths. "A suds, a rinse, a suds, a rinse, and a suds and a rinse." For birds like pelicans, cormorants, and sea gulls, oil on their skin can cause hypothermia; and ingested oil is poisonous. "If they ingest any oil, they have to be treated with charcoal...makes them vomit."
Staff and volunteers are packing Wednesday night to leave at a moment's notice. But they say supplies are still needed. "Whether it's clipboards, sheets and towels, rubber gloves…Dawn dishwashing liquid." With the right supplies at the right timing, Save Our Seabirds promises to live up to its name.
Devlin says Save Our Seabirds has an 85% success rate with rescuing birds from oil spills. If you'd like to donate supplies or financially assist this rescue mission, you can drop off donations at the Save Our Seabirds headquarters on city island in Sarasota, or visit www.saveourseabirds.org/.
Are you in Mississippi, Alabama or Florida Panhandle Areas please check with your local Audobon Society for sign up.
We will post more contact groups as we hear of them.
NASA - Keeping Eye on the Gulf Oil Spill
NOAA issues daily updates on the movement of the oil slick and what is being done. There are also contacts to report oil slick spotting, distressed animal spotting and volunteer signing ups.
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco spoke with fishermen in Venice, Louisiana today as the Deepwater Horizon incident grows. Also visiting the spill were Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Rear Admiral Mary Landry, Deputy Secretary of Interior David Hayes and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Carol Browner. The Department of Defense authorized mobilization of the Louisiana National Guard to help protect critical habitats from contamination and assist local communities in the cleanup and removal of oil.
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Oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico at an estimated to 5000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day from three leaks in damaged piping on the sea floor from the Deepwater Horizon incident recently declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS). NOAA is assisting the Unified Command in evaluating a new technique to apply dispersants to oil at the source - 5000’ below the surface, if successful this could keep plumes and sheens from forming. Work also continues on a piping system designed to take oil from a collection dome at the sea floor to tankers on the surface; this technique has never been tried at 5000’. Drilling of a relief or cut-off well is still planned - one drilling rig is on site and one should arrive this weekend, but the process will not be complete for several months. Aircraft have applied over 139,000 gallons of dispersant and will continue as conditions allow. With shore impacts looming, more than 217,000 feet of boom have been assigned to contain the spill, with an additional 305,760 feet available. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced the closure of both recreational and commercial fishing in areas of likely impact and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals closed molluscan shellfish (oyster) harvesting areas in the coastal parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard. NOAA efforts have included: modeling the trajectory and extent of the oil, getting pre-impact samples surveys and baseline measurements, planning for open water and shoreline remediation, supporting the Unified Command as it analyzes new techniques for handling the spill and starting Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDA).
- National Weather Service forecasts persistent southeast winds through the weekend which will push surface oil towards shore and hamper surface recovery efforts until a forecast shift on Monday
- The Coast Guard is using forecasts and graphics of oil movement prepared by NOAA’s Emergency Response Division (ERD) and Marine Charting Division to keep mariners out of oil areas by depicting them on electronic charts
- Baseline aerial surveys to assess marine life continued today with personnel from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), more flights are planned this weekend
- NOAA’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) coordinated with natural resource trustees from five states and with Responsible Party representatives on seven resource assessment workgroups (birds, mammals and turtles, fish, shoreline habitats, water column injury, data management, and human use)
- NOAA and the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Hospitals gathered oysters and water and sediment samples in four commercial harvest areas
- An ARD natural resource economist arrives on scene tomorrow to lead a team that will evaluate spill related losses of human-use activities
Important Contacts
- For NOAA media inquiries, please contact Keeley Belva at keeley.belva@noaa.gov or 301.713.3066
- For Response inquiries,please phone the Joint Information Center (JIC) at 985.902.5231 or 985.902.5240
- Report oil on land, or for general Community and Volunteer Information, please phone 866.448.5816
- Report oiled or injured wildlife, please phone 800.557.1401
- Discuss spill related damage claims,please phone 800.440.0858
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BP is asking fishermen for their assistance in cleaning up the oil spill. BP is calling this the Vessel of Opportunities Program and through it, BP is looking to contract shrimp boats, oyster boats and other vessels for hire to deploy boom in the Gulf of Mexico. Fishermen should phone 425.745.8017 about this program.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP YOU UPDATED
