With Spring Migration, Generations at Risk

Her name is Bama, and she’s on her way to her summer home in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Her small family makes the journey from central Florida every year eating sea grass and hanging out in shallows close to shore. She’s currently enjoying a rest and good food in Apalachicola, but will be back on the road soon.

Bama is the first Manatee ever tagged in Alabama and she loves the Mobile delta, but she doesn’t know about the danger this spring! Ruth Carmichael, a senior marine scientist with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, commented on Saturday about her and the other species of marine and, avian wildlife on the Gulf Coast.

“Really, the concern is not just for Bama, but for what she represents,” Carmichael said. “We’re on the leading edge of animals making the seasonal migration from Florida to the northern coast.”

There are close to 600 known species of wildlife that make the Gulf waters and coast their spring home, and now the ensuing spill threatens them all. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries 445 species of fish, 45 species of mammals, 32 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 134 species of birds spend a portion of their life on the coast and in the warm waters from Texas to Florida.

Pods of Dolphin have already been spotted returning to their spawning grounds near Louisiana. This video supplied by the NDRC shows one such pod swimming though the oil slick.

Dolphin in Oil Slick Video: NDRC

People are mobilizing from all over to collect supplies and donations to rescue oiled animals and save coastal ecosystems, but all this can become overwhelming as the oil continues to surge from the ruptured pipe line and plans for a solution sound more hopeless everyday.

Please send your prayers, donations, and encouragement to all the groups and individuals along the coast. They need all the help they can get.

Matteroftrust.org
Alabama Gulf Shores Zoo
Audubon Society
Sierra Club
Save Our Shores Foundation
Help Save the Gulf Shores
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers

There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! Blog