Shedd joins gulf wildlife rescue effort

Nearly three months after the calamitous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, much of its tragic impact on wildlife remains unseen.

Photographs of oil-soaked pelicans, egrets, terns and sea turtles show only part of the damage, say experts, referring to the 2,300 birds and more than 600 sea turtles rescued and treated so far. Much of the damage continues to unfold below the ocean's surface, says Ken Ramirez, executive vice president of animal collections and training at Chicago's John G. Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium.

"There are probably thousands of species of fish and invertebrates impacted that we're not even seeing," Ramirez said, adding that birds and sea turtles are more visible because they live closer to shore.

But Ramirez and his Shedd Aquarium colleagues aren't just opining from afar. They're rolling up their sleeves, deploying longtime veterinary technician Mayela Alsina to Louisiana for two weeks to assist workers with the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program.

Ramirez observed a "fine-tuned operation" when he visited last week. Having coordinated rescues himself, Ramirez knows how they operate.

"Unfortunately, they have a lot of experience because there are animals in peril quite frequently" although not all as a result of an oil spill, he said.

While Gulf Coast rehabilitation facilities were able to respond to the disaster initially, "as the scope of the tragedy widened, the need for additional help increased," said Ramirez, who assisted with the sea otter rehabilitation following 1989's Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Shedd personnel responded, as they did then and again in 2000 when a spill from the oil tanker Treasure threatened penguins off the coast of South Africa. Shedd adopted four sea otters following the Exxon Valdez spill, said Ramirez and they will take in animals again if necessary.

"As the (Gulf) oil spill continues and the tragedy continues to widen in scope there may be more animals that need long-term care," he said.

He is especially concerned about sea turtles.

"It's egg-laying season and upward of 25,000 eggs have been laid and buried," he said. "When those eggs hatch, those hatchlings will swim into the oil where they will certainly die."

That is, unless they're relocated, which relief workers have proposed to government officials.

Ramirez would count as a success all the affected animals "rescued, nursed back to health and reintroduced into the wild."

Even better, he says, would be to "educate people about the impact on wildlife that we as humans have and see it affect legislation, and action so that something like this doesn't happen again."