OFFSHORE OIL, SAFE UNTIL IT ISN’T, HITS LAND

Gulf Oil Spill: Chandeleur Islands are first oil victim
Jill Leovy, May 6, 2010 (LA Times)

"Oil has hit the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana…[Reports confirm it] has impacted Freemason Island, just south of the Chandeleur Islands…

"St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro said his parish does not have enough protective booms to guard against oil washing ashore."

Oil slick just off the islands. (from the LA Times - click to enlarge)

"…[W]ildlife officials had just gotten the first verified reports [Thursday] of oil washing up on the Chandeleurs, not far from a sensitive pelican rookery…[Field workers investigating] could offer no further detail, because the islands are so remote that they are out of range of cellphones or even radios….[but are said to have] found the first oiled birds…Two northern gannets, both dead.

"Ecologically and historically, the islands are considered treasures. They encompass Breton National Wildlife Refuge, the second refuge established in the U.S. system, and there is a rare, famous picture of President Theodore Roosevelt sitting on a beach there back in the early days of the environmental movement. Roosevelt was motivated to preserve the area because of the slaughter of aquatic birds for the manufacture of women's hats."

from About.com - click to enlarge)

"The islands are grassy in places and almost completely uninhabited. They are barren landscapes of brown sand and mud, mixed with oyster shells, and surrounded by greenish seas. Fishing enthusiasts flock there.

"Pelican populations were restored on the island in recent decades after the bird disappeared from the region because of DDT and other threats…Since they began nesting on the islands, they have thrived and are now tending about 1,800 nests at three locations…Terns and gulls nest there too…"