BP Burns Gulf Wildlife
Atop the oil slicked surface of the Gulf waters, hired shrimp boats drag fireproof boom. Running parallel to one another, they “sweep” the surface of its oil, seaweed, and any other marine life which might get corralled before setting it all on fire. They’re called “Burn Boxes”, and from them the black plumes rising to the clouds can be seen from many miles away.
Amidst the confusion of cleanup and rescue teams currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico, one such group has been shoved out of the way by BP, and now must sit idly by and watch helplessly as their dependents burn alive.
Captain Mike Ellis, a charter boat operator in the Gulf, was hired to help rescue sea turtles. That includes the Kemps Ridley turtles, which because of their status as “critically endangered” are currently protected behind a law wielding criminal charges and a $50,000 price tag on anyone capturing or killing one.
Hired for a three week stint Ellis had to prematurely shut down his operations as BP stopped giving him access to search through the mucky contents of the burn boxes before setting them aflame. “Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out,” Ellis said.
Blair Witherington, a research scientist from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who is also a part of the sea turtle rescue effort told reporters, “It reflects the conventional wisdom of oil spills: If they just keep the oil out at sea, the harm will be minimal. And I disagree with that completely.”
Clinging to one of their main food sources – strips of Sargassum seaweed that in many instances stretch for miles, in which normally hide a variety of crustaceans, worms, and small fish – the turtles are only finding the sea-plants saturated in oil. “Most of the Gulf of Mexico is a desert. Nothing out there to live on. It’s all concentrated in these oases,” Witherington said. “…It’s the base of the food chain. And these areas we’re seeing here by comparison are quite dead.” He later added, “As far as I can tell, that whole fauna is just completely wiped out.”
It can hardly be expected for the heads of BP to care about anything other than the business they’ve built primarily on the theft of Iran’s natural resources in the early 1900’s – the theft which has brought upon so much anti-western sentiment that runs rampant throughout most of the middle-east even today. And how justifiable is slowing the cleanup process further for sea turtles when entire eco-systems are still endangered; still watching over the slicks ominously creeping straight toward them? To us who care about empowering the powerless it is very justifiable, as it’s only another instance of the same carelessness that brought this mess upon us in the first place.
