The Unexpected Effect of Hurricane Season 2010 on Endangered Species Due to the Oil Spill in the Gulf

Although no oil from the BP Oil-spill has hit the West Coast of Florida yet, there is more for coastal communities to worry about than simply cleaning up the muck. With Hurricane season 2010 here, only time will tell how this will effect the endangered species of birds along the coast-line.

Hurricane Alex, the first named storm of the season, made landfall along the Tex-Mex border, 110 miles south of Brownsville Texas, at approximately 9PM CDT, as a category 2 with sustained winds of 100 mph.

From the video and the photos, you can see that even though it is steering clear of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida as a major hurricane, the winds and waves are sloshing the Gulf waters around, making it impossible for the crews to get in and try to contain the crude from the oil-spill, while displacing much of the oil that was already contained as well, while millions of gallons still spew out of the sea-floor daily.

The good news is that Alex turned out to be a comparatively passive storm, with a reported power outage of an estimated 1500-3000 of over a million homes. The bad news is that Alex turned out to be a relatively calm hurricane at category 2 and gives us only little indication of what the full impact a stronger head-on storm will have on the oil-spill in the Gulf.

At the risk of sounding like one of the conspiracy theorists who believe that this oil-spill is going to cause the earth to implode due to the steam and deadly gases being released from the uncontained well, which is purportedly going to cause a void below the surface of the ocean floor, which then will supposedly cause the ocean floor to bottom out like a huge sink-hole of sorts (One of the reasons I chose writing is the research--you get to hear it all); there is perhaps (at least) a bit of logic to what they are saying, though it is doubtful that this spill will bring about the end of the world any quicker than Castro's Prediction of a nuclear war before July 2....

Although no oil has actually hit the West Coast of Florida yet, there has been some landfall on the panhandle and a lot of oil trashing up the marshes of Louisiana.

To count, an unknown number of dolphins have already fallen victim to BP oil-spill and been found dead in various places, schools and schools of Blue-fin-Tuna, and beds and beds of shrimp, crabs and other crustaceans, plankton and other sea creatures.

Several species of gull, pelican and other seabirds have also been rescued in the thousands--among those who are rescued and attempted to be saved, reports show that only a few survive:

Imagine being submerged in a pool of gas, for an extended period of time, now imagine the gas is caked on and pasted to your skin, matted in your hair, in your eyes, in your mouth, in your nose, in your ears and even in the orifices of more private parts of your body. How much of the chemical do you suppose would absorb into your body through these orifices and every pore of your body? Have you ever gotten gas on your skin? How bad did it burn? Now, imagine trying to survive what I just described....

The problem that has not been addressed is the endangered species that live in these areas who rely on the shorelines for their survival.

The Black Skimmer, a bird that is on the endangered list of many states including Florida and New Jersey--has already lost an entire generation due to the carelessness of a Canadian film crew filming a commercial for Bombardier, could very well end up an unexpected victim to this disaster.

The Black Skimmer, a bird that kind of looks like Toucan Sam with a beak that the bottom bill is longer than the top, skims the water for top swimming fish and food sources. It only nests on coastal shorelines, so, what happens if too many of these birds get trapped in the gooey Gulf Spill?

With Hurricane Alex kicking up the waves this bad, what is going to become of the oil spill in the Gulf? Where is that oil going to go? How is that going to affect these endangered species? What about future hurricanes (This is supposed to be a serious season with up to 16 named storms. Alex was relatively mild, will the next one be so generous?)