Wildlife bore the brunt of the tragic San Francisco Bay oil spill as the weekend saw hundreds of birds die from toxic shock and wash ashore, after having been covered by the thick tar-like oil that has innundated Bay Area waters and beaches since Wednesday November 7. So many birds are poisoned and injured, their body temperatures, stomaches, eyes, feathers and entire environment affected by the inescapable expanses of polluted water, that rescue efforts pale and seem almost insignificant against the catastrophic animal holocaust.
They aren't insignificant though, and infact stand as one of the only signs of redemption in the bizzare, armagedonlike reality which is unfolding around the bay.
Totally coated in oil from the spill, this dead bird
was discovered by California State Park employees on a Bay Area beach
All Bay Area beaches are currently closed or restricted from public use. That is more then 19 beaches in total, and miles of shoreline, prized by locals as some of the most beautiful urban beach areas in the world. But not so today, as the stench of ship bunker oil, its gasoline station like odor, rises from the bay's water and infects the air of a city and region that prides itself on environmental stewardship and green causes. Their beloved bay is in peril, attacked by oil from a shipping accident that never should have happened, and that critics charge should have been aggressively contained much earlier then it was. Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and a Bay Area Senator spoke for the region when she told the San Francisco Chronicle, "Something went terribly wrong, it was not handled the way it has to be handled... You are talking about the most pristine part of the country here. We value this ecosystem... It's just unacceptable,"
An oil 'tarball' from the spill sits on
a beach on the east side of San Francisco Bay
Environmentalists, outraged at the slow response to the spill, are asking why emergency crews with oil booms to contain the spill weren't at the site of the accident much sooner then they were. According to news reports two full hours passed between when the accident occurred and when full containment of the spill began. Even now the response to the disaster is abysmally small. The state and federal park rangers, vector control workers, private environmental cleanup contractors, and volunteers who labor to rescue injured animals and clean up the water and beaches are trying, but there are not enough people to do the job.
This duck, coated in oil, was rescued by State Park Rangers. It sits in a holding box, awaiting transport to a facility where volunteers and professionals will clean and attempt to rehabilitate it.
image credits SustainablePublic.com
