Subject: BP burning rare sea turtles alive while blocking rescue efforts
From: “NaturalNews” <insider@naturalnews.com>
Date: Fri, June 25, 2010 1:46 am
http://www.naturalnews.com/029074_sea_turtles_Gulf_of_Mexico.html
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Seize BP Week of Action
Demonstrations across the country
Thursday, June 3 – Thursday, June 10
http://www.authorsden.com/ShortStoryUpload/3598.doc
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/02/bp-media-clampdown-no-pho_n_598119.html
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(NaturalNews) By now, almost everyone is aware of the out-of-control oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico that seems to be getting exponentially worse with each passing day. But what people may not know is that BP’s efforts to control the oil by burning it are actually burning alive a certain rare and endangered species of sea turtle.
For several weeks now, rescue crews have been feverishly trying to save Kemp’s Ridleys sea turtles, as well as four other endangered varieties, from being caught in the oil corral areas that are being intentionally burned by BP, but according to Mike Ellis, one of the boat captains involved in the project, BP has now blocked all such rescue efforts from taking place.
“They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there,” he explained in an interview with Catherine Craig, a conservation biologist.
According to Dr. Brian Stacy, a veterinarian with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are five different endangered sea turtles living in the Gulf that are all at risk, but the type being found “dead or covered in oil” the most is the Kemp’s Ridleys variety, which is the rarest species of them all.
So why would BP intentionally block rescue efforts aimed at protecting and saving wildlife and other endangered species from being burned alive in controlled burning pits? For starters, the Kemp’s Ridleys sea turtle is listed in the Endangered Species Act, which means there are severe penalties for those who harm or kill them.
According to the law, harming or killing even one animal on the endangered species list can result in a fine of up to $50,000 and may include prison time. This means that the hundreds, or even thousands, of endangered sea turtles being burned alive by BP are going to cost the company a lot of money, not to mention the prison time its executives might have to serve.
At this point, it is difficult to determine exactly how many sea turtles are being, or have been, destroyed by BP because access to the pits has ceased, but crews are doing what they can to keep track of the animals they do know of to be sure that BP is held responsible in the end..___
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When we last left Mother Jones’ reporter Mac McClelland, she was in the Gulf Coast region, caught up in the surreal tangle of media roadblocks that were being erected by British Petroleum to keep reporters at bay. How have things done since then? Not well, as it turns out!
Indeed, when I ran into some [cleanup workers] packing up on the Grand Isle beach twenty minutes later, I asked them only if they were done working for the day, and they refused to tell me. One woman said, “I can’t talk to you,” and then another worker ran up to her and grabbed her arm and said, “Just ignore her, ignore her,” and the whole interaction was unsettlingly rude and sort of sad. The workers who were staying next to me in my Grand Isle motel last week told me that when BP (not, in this case, and for the record, a subcontractor) had instructed them that they couldn’t talk to the press, it’d involved a warning that media organizations would go so far as to dub audio propaganda over their videotaped commentary, putting unflattering words in their mouths.
The New York Daily News‘ Matthew Lysiak is also in Grand Isle, where he was the fortunate beneficiary of a “surreptitious tour of the wildlife disaster unfolding in Louisiana.”
“There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It’s important to me that people know the truth about what’s going on here,” the contractor said.
“The things I’ve seen: They just aren’t right. All the life out here is just full of oil. I’m going to show you what BP never showed the President.”
A dead dolphin, stuffed with oil, figures prominently in the account. It’s all very sad, and not a little bit enraging. As Allison KilKenny puts it: “In a sane world, a company guilty of gross negligence that resulted in the deaths of 11 workers would be under criminal investigation, and not be parading around the coast, telling the media where they can go and who they can talk to, while forbidding their clean-up crews from wearing protective gear.”
Meanwhile, remember BP CEO Tony Hayward, who this past Sunday said that he “wanted his life back?” Well, he’s very sorry about how that must have sounded, to humans:
“I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that “I wanted my life back.” When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident. Those words don’t represent how I feel about this tragedy, and certainly don’t represent the hearts of the people of BP – many of whom live and work in the Gulf – who are doing everything they can to make things right. My first priority is doing all we can to restore the lives of the people of the Gulf region and their families – to restore their lives, not mine.”
Naturally, that bit of flackery was emailed to reporters and posted on the BP America Facebook page, in keeping with BP’s tradition of keeping anything too troubling as far away from cameras as possible.
Link: Ridley Sea Turtle – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridley_sea_turtle
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
