Just over a week ago, the Cosco Busan container ship collided with the San Francisco Bay Bridge and leaked 58,000 gallons of toxic fuel oil into the Bay. As Plutonium Page diaried here already, the spill is the largest in the Bay since 1996 and poses untold environmental damage to both humans and a perpetually vulnerable ecosystem. Salon.com has a poignant piece up today about why the timing of the disaster -- right in the middle of birds' winter migratory season -- is particularly tragic:
Every fall millions of birds fly south from their summer breeding homes in Alaska's tundra and Canada's boreal forests, bound for the warm climes and plentiful food of South America. Along the way more than 1 million stop, sometimes for the entire winter, in the San Francisco Bay, the largest estuary on the West Coast. This year the birds, some of them not a year old, alighted on the bay, weakened from their long flight, aiming to feed and rest for the long journey ahead, only to find that their sanctuary had become a toxic-tainted stew.
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As the SF Chronicle is reporting, nearly 1,500 birds, including many rare species, have already been found covered in oil, and the contamination will spread as birds that stop in the Bay pick up the toxic sludge on their feathers before moving farther south:
"The oiled birds are everywhere," said Rebecca Dmytryk, an International Bird Rescue Research Center worker on her way to plan a new capture of injured birds on Rodeo Beach in Marin County. "Some of these birds have had oil on them for a week, and they're dying."
Ellie Cohen, executive director of PRBO Conservation Science is quoted in Salon's article as estimating that 10,000 to 20,000 birds have already been affected, and only 5 to 10% will ever be treated or recovered.
"An oiled bird is probably eventually a dead bird," says Janet Hanson, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. "It's tragic."
So what can we as Kossacks do? Get local and support those organizations that are making the difference in the Bay. One of those organizations is the San Francisco Foundation, which has started an Oil Spill Fund with an initial launch of $250,000 and is seeking matching funds to reach $500,000.
From the SFF website on what you can do to help:
Donate to organizations that are directly responding to the oil spill.
* International Bird Rescue and Research Center
* Point Reyes Bird Observatory
* Wildcare
* Golden Gate Audubon
* Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary
* Save the Bay
* San Francisco Baykeeper
You can also provide a matching gift to The San Francisco Foundation Cosco Busan Oil Spill Fund via online donation using your credit card or by sending a check. More information is available at the link.
Whether you can give or not, though:
Get involved.
Volunteer to assist in emergency efforts or the longer-term restoration, and express your concerns to policy makers regionally, statewide, and nationally.
Today, there were several trainings in the Bay Area for volunteers interested in assisting the clean-up efforts first hand. You can find more information about volunteering here.