|
June 17, 2010 A Message from the Cornell Lab’s Conservation Science Director, Ken Rosenberg Dear friend, The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has affected everyone who cares about birds and nature. We appreciate the many calls and messages we have received from people expressing concern and the desire to help. In this update, I’ll share what our team is seeing along Louisiana’s coast--and explain the enormous need for monitoring and recovery. You can help by reporting your sightings to eBird or by donating now to support our conservation work. Let’s Make Sure That Birds Surviving the Oil Today Will Have a Future Tomorrow
Sadly, this pelican is just the most visible indicator of an entire ecosystem under siege. As committed groups work to save the lives of individual birds along the Louisiana coast, the Cornell Lab is focused on mobilizing birders and providing key scientific data and expertise to ensure that bird populations get the help they need to recover--now and into the future. Birders Aid Recovery by Reporting Their Sightings In the face of large-scale disaster, one
of the first keys to recovery is the ability
to quickly assess damage and prioritize
efforts. The Cornell Lab and Audubon have
mobilized birders in all the Gulf Coast
states to report their sightings to eBird.
Since May 4, volunteers have
Cornell Lab’s High-Tech Monitoring: A Critical Need for Ocean’s Wildlife Unlike birds, which thousands of people monitor every day, no baseline data exist to help scientists assess the oil’s impact on the Gulf’s largest animals--whales. This week, the Cornell Lab’s bioacoustics team is deploying autonomous underwater recorders in the Gulf to record the sounds of sperm whales, Bryde’s whales, other marine mammals, and fish. These data will provide key information about how marine life is responding in areas affected and unaffected by oil--the first step in taking action to help.
The Cornell Lab team is documenting the oil spill’s effect on birds for the public, scientists, and policy makers. Our video crew recorded the scene at Grand Terre on June 5, after oil got past booms, and at Barataria Bay on June 8, as oil seeped into the marshes. They have found 14 species with oiled plumage, including egrets, spoonbills, stilts, terns, gulls, and Sanderlings. None were as heavily oiled as the pelican shown earlier in this message, but even smaller amounts of oil can be life-threatening since clean feathers are essential for insulation, waterproofing, and flight. The Oil is Still Flowing, But Recovery Must Begin Now. Please Help. The success of recovery from the oil spill depends on our nation’s ability to anticipate and assess the damage, prioritize clean-up efforts, and implement long-term recovery. Gathering information about the effect of oil on animals is crucial to each of these steps. Please join us in making a positive difference by reporting your sightings to eBird or by making a donation to support our work. Thank you for your help. Sincerely, Kenneth V. Rosenberg |
The image of the pelican in oil at left
was taken by Ben Clock, a member of our
video crew documenting the oil’s effects on
wildlife. Our crew alerted rescuers who
captured the pelican for rehabilitation.
submitted more
than 175,000 observations--key data that can
be compared with past years to understand
the oil’s impact on birds and pinpoint
locations for immediate and long-term
recovery. Please contribute your sightings
to 
Making Sure the Birds Are Heard