Agencies Continue Wildlife Recovery, Rehabilitation

Contacts:
Joint Information Center, 985-534-2396
Tom MacKenzie, FWS, 678-296-6400

NEW ORLEANS - The U.S. Coast Guard, Amerada Hess Corporation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local agencies continue to work together today to recover oil and wildlife from a rookery on West Breton Island in the Breton National Wildlife Refuge after an oil spill occurred Sunday.

To date workers have:

• Recovered and transported 582 birds to the rehabilitation site; of these 221 have died.
• Currently, 80 birds are being transported to Venice, La., 70 reportedly died on the island and 10 captured alive are being transferred to the rehabilitation site.
• Coast Guard is continuing to oversee oil spill response and recovery efforts and containment booms and absorbent pads are being deployed as required.

Rehabilitation workers have been focused on stabilizing the birds, feeding them and attending to their medical needs.

"We are grateful for the assistance of the clean-up and rescue workers and volunteers who have supported our efforts to protect the environment," said Jay Wilson, Vice President, Amerada Hess Corporation. "This was an unfortunate incident and we will continue to work closely with federal, state and local agency partners to quickly recover any impacted animals and minimize any further impact to the environment."

The oil spill of approximately 560 gallons was discovered Sunday morning when personnel returned to an Amerada Hess platform after evacuating due to tropical storm Arlene.

The incident is currently under investigation.

The area on the refuge where the wildlife were impacted is designated as a national wilderness area.