Death by Fire - Gulf "clean up crew:" disregarding efforts to save wildlife

[eowyn_of_rohan]

Death by fire in the Gulf - Efforts to stop the massive spill from reaching shore are having devastating affects in 'the burn box.'
By Kim Murphy, McClatchy-Tribune News June 18, 2010 8:25 AM

GULF OF MEXICO — Here on the open ocean, 20 kilometres from ground zero of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Gulf is hovering between life and death. The large strands of sargassum seaweed atop the ocean are normally noisy with birds and thick with crustaceans, small fish and sea turtles. But now this is a silent panorama, heavy with the smell of oil.

There are no birds. The seaweed is soaked in rust-coloured crude and chemical dispersant. It is devoid of life except for the occasional juvenile sea turtle, speckled with oil and clinging to the only habitat it knows. Thick ribbons of oil spread out through the sea, gorgeous and deadly.

...In the days since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, more than five million gallons of oil have been consumed in more than 165 burns....The burn operations have proved particularly excruciating for the turtle researchers, who have been trolling the same lines of oil and seaweed as the boom boats, hoping to pull turtles out of the sargassum before they are burned alive.

...Yet in one case, the crew had to fall back and watch as skimmers gathered up a long line of sargassum that hadn't yet been searched -- and which they believe was full of turtles that might have been saved.

"In a perfect world, they'd gather up the material and let us search it before they burned it," Witherington said. "But that connection hasn't been made. The lines of communication aren't there."

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Death+fire+Gulf/3168595/story.html
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The company responsible for these burns - subcontracted by BP - is "O'Brien's Response Management" out of Houston, Texas...