Gulf’s Wildlife Casualties Rising Fast

Photo by the International Bird Rescue Research Center, courtesy Wikimedia Commons

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More injured and dead wildlife has been found in the 25 days since BP capped the well than when it was still spewing. According to the Times-Picayune:

  • 37 oiled birds were collected on average each day prior to July 15, with 71 oiled birds collected on average each day after July 15.
  • Prior to the cap, 56 percent of oiled birds were collected alive. Since then, only 41 percent have been collected alive.
  • More sea turtles have been collected now than during the first three months of the spill: 428 oiled sea turtles recovered in total, with 222 coming in the only past past 10 days.
  • Yesterday’s tally included 38  sea turtles collected alive and 33 collected dead, according to this Fish and Wildlife collection report (pdf) of the daily totals.

The growing number of bird casualties may be at least partially a result of rescuers venturing into sensitive rookeries for the first time since the spill. Earlier, at the height of the breeding season, human rescuers might have done more harm than good. Also, many fledgling birds are just now leaving the nest and encountering a fouled world for the first time.

Alarmingly, a high number of oiled turtles are now being found feeding on seaweed drift lines, where there’s no apparent oil in the drift lines or on the open water.

Meanwhile, from an overflight of  Chandeleur Sound east of New Orleans, the National Wildlife Federation reports streams of red oil on the water surface caught in a rip line, as well as mile after mile, as far at the eye could see, of what looked like red dispersed oil just below the surface.

I have a lot more forthcoming on the insidious effects of dispersed oil—including what might be a clue to the mysterious oiled sea turtlesin a big MoJo article in the September/October issue, to be released online this week.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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