Environment & Energy

hatrack

(59,587 posts) Wed Apr 22, 2015, 07:34 AM Apr 2015

5 Years After BP, Cat Island (Louisiana), Once Thriving Rookery, Down From 5 Acres To >1

Last edited Thu Apr 23, 2015, 08:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Cat Island, 2010

Cat Island, March 31, 2015

Cat Island, off the Gulf Coast in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, was home to a vibrant bird rookery inhabited by brown pelicans, seagulls, spoonbills, and egrets before BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Five years after the largest oil spill in American history, the barrier island has just about disappeared. Despite ongoing efforts by former Plaquemines Parish coastal zone manager PJ Hahn to restore the island, only the needed building permits and an engineering plan have been completed.

“Cat Island was ground zero of the oil spill,” Hahn told DeSmogBlog. He thought that the restoration of the island was a no-brainer since, while much of the oil spill's damage was underwater and invisible, the damage to Cat Island was easy to prove. According to Hahn, not only would the island’s restoration be necessary for the birds, but it would provide a great public relations move for anyone who helped in the process.

At the time of the spill, Cat Island was approximately five and a half acres, covered by a dense forest of black mangrove trees which were occupied by nesting birds. All that remains now are two small strips of land — less than an acre combined. Mangrove stumps jut out from the broken, shell-covered sandy remains of the island, at times fully submerged during high tide.

“The island was a treasure and it deserves to be restored,” Hahn told DeSmogBlog. He continues to advocate for the restoration project he spearheaded. “It's a hard sell for many since the island doesn't serve as storm protection like other barrier islands that are in the process of being restored since the spill,” Hahn said.

EDIT

http://desmogblog.com/2015/04/19/five-years-after-bp-oil-disaster-barrier-island-nesting-birds-devoid-life