May 25 Update:
The link below shows an illustrated video concept, from an experienced oil worker, who simply wants his idea considered. This man's experiences are very familiar to Safe Harbor.
http://cbs11tv.com/oilspill/gulf.oil.spill.2.1704112.html
In the relative silence of many politicians, for reasons yet to be determined, Louisana Governor Bobby Jindal has emerged into a position of leadership. Our country's natural resources are held in a public trust. We are all stakeholders. When we watch an ever growing, toxic blanket being allowed to take 20,000 square miles of our fisheries and potentially hundreds of miles of coastal ecosystems, off line, we are bearing witness to a violation of that public trust which our elected officials are not protecting.
Our comments on the coastal bird rescue plan:
Species don't exist individually but within systems.
The ability of sustainable natural resource systems to adapt to an event of this magnitude are marginal. When a system is overwhelmed by stress and cannot adapt, it reaches a tipping point. The system will collapse and reconfigure, perhaps unpredictably. The individual species can no longer be supported.
We need to consider the unthinkable, that bird, fish and animal populations previously supported by the system may be lost. Even if we could handle say, 34,000 phone calls and rescue 34,000 birds, there would be no supportive resource system to return them to and translocating that many individuals somewhere else would stress other resource systems.
Our recent concerns focused on the increasing probability of interactions between the spill shield and the Gulf Stream Loop that runs through the Gulf of Mexico. The spill shield and a developing Gulf Stream Loop eddy current were already in proximity and the spill contimnues spreading. We expect predictability to diminish with growth of the spill. http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~liu/oil_spill_ensemble_forecast.html