Oil spill clean up important updates

June 7, 2010 (Tina Ranieri). BP continues Gulf oil spill clean up, to capture some oil and burn some gas at the surface using its containment dome technique, which is being executed under the federal government’s direction.  After cutting off a portion of the riser, BP placed a containment device over it in order to capture oil at its source.

OR&R’s modeling team continues to generate daily trajectories for the nearshore and offshore surface oil. Overflights are also conducted on a daily basis (weather permitting) to provide field verification of model trajectories. Yesterday’s forecast of winds from the south and southwest currently remains the same although winds may diminish tomorrow, creating improved response conditions.

NOAA will be leading training on shoreline assessment technique later this week in order to fill the need created by increasing oil coming ashore.

Survey crews conducted three cycles of flights to locate impacted birds and other wildlife. These pilots fly over impacted areas and report oiled pelicans and any other wildlife back to response command centers to guide the response actions of rescue and rehabilitation teams.

A total of 289 sea turtles have been verified within the designated spill area (The designated spill area for sea turtles and marine mammals is from the Texas/Louisiana border to Apalachicola, Florida)

Between Friday, June 4, and Saturday, June 5, seven turtle strandings were verified, including one live, heavily-oiled sea turtle in Alabama, one dead in Alabama, three dead in Mississippi and two dead in Louisiana.

In addition, two of the heavily-oiled Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles recovered last week in the ongoing offshore search and rescue operation died at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans, leaving 22 from these rescue missions in rehab at the aquarium.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other partners working under the Unified Command captured 25 turtles, one was brought in dead.

A total of 31 stranded or captured turtles have had external oil. These include the 25 captured turtles, four live stranded sea turtles (two caught in skimming operations) and two dead stranded turtles. All others have not had visible evidence of external oil.

Of the 289 turtles verified from April 30 to June 5, a total of 242 turtles stranded dead, 22 stranded alive. Three of those subsequently died.

From April 30 to June 5, 31 dead dolphins have stranded within the designated spill area and two live dolphins have stranded.  One died on the beach and another that stranded in Florida was euthanized.  So far, one of the 33 stranded dolphins had evidence of external oil.  Because it was found on an oiled beach, we are unable at this time to determine whether the animal was covered in oil prior to its death or after its death.

Important Contacts

* For NOAA media inquiries, please contact Ben Sherman, John Ewald or Rachel Wilhelm or phone 301.713.3066.
* To offer suggestions to clean, contain, recover or stop the flow of oil visit Deepwater Horizon Response Suggestions. This website also provides procedures and forms for Alternative Response Tool Evaluation System (ARTES) proposals.
* For response-related inquiries, please phone the Joint Information Center (JIC) at 985.902.5231 or 985.902.5240.
* To report oil on land, or for general community information, please phone 866.448.5816.
* To report oiled or injured wildlife, please phone 866.557.1401.
* To learn about volunteer opportunities in all areas and what training is required, please phone 866.448.5816.
* To discuss spill related damage claims, please phone 800.440.0858.
* 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. To learn more about the Vessel of Opportunity Program, fishermen should phone 281.366.5511.

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