What a disaster!

In talking to my sister the other day I was surprised to discover that she had not heard about the giant oil spill in the Bay.  To bring those friends and family members that do not live in the Bay area up to speed, here's what happened:

A Giant mother-ass sized container ship collided with the Bay Bridge last Wednesday. The collision ripped a gash in the fuel tank of the Hong Kong-based Cosco Busan, unleashing 58,000 gallons of thick, toxic fuel oil into the Bay. In the week since the incident, the deadly oil has tarred thousands of birds and dozens of marine mammals. The oil spill couldn't have happened at a worse time for the roughly 1.6 million migrating birds that come to San Francisco Bay each year. Hundreds of thousands of migrating birds are threatened as a result of the oil spill. The toxic oil can kill birds outright and sicken others, depending on how much oil they consume. If the oil gets on their feathers, they can't keep warm.

To date, nearly 1,500 birds have been picked up dead or alive; however, thousands more birds and ducks have been splashed with oil but remain in the wild where they will probably die.

Birds aren't the only oil spill victims. Sea lions and harbor seals have also been exposed to the oil. Some 37 of the 244 sea lions counted at Pier 39 in San Francisco were oiled. Harbor seals have been seen swimming through the oil slick.

This is a devastating disaster that will have environmental consequences for the next 10-20 years.

On a more positive note, the first birds (38 in total) helped to survive the spill were released to the wild yesterday.

What you can do to help:

To volunteer: call the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at (800) 228-4544, or email Baykeeper at volunteer@baykeeper.org.

To report oiled wildlife: call the OWCN hotline at (877) 823-6926.

To report oil sightings, call (985) 781-0804.

Donate to:
International Bird Rescue Research Center: http://www.ibrrc.org/

Oiled Wildlife Care Network: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/owcn/

Save the Bay: http://www.savesfbay.org

I have asked my family to make donations to the above organizations in lieu of presents this Christmas.