Coast Animals Endangered? - ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports
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"It's really heartbreaking," Alabama Wildlife Center Executive Director, Beth Bloomfield, said. "A number of our volunteers and staff are depressed."
Bloomfield says right now at the Alabama Wildlife Center morale is low, all because of the tear-jerking pictures coming from the Gulf Coast that show birds covered in oil.
"People really are devastated by this news and the fact that it's still ongoing," Bloomfield said. "Oil is still flowing and they don't know how long it will continue."
But even if the oil does stop spreading soon, workers say it might be too late.
"We're way passed time that it should have been stopped," Bloomfield said.
"We have such a diversity of species, birds, mammals and reptiles," Jessie Griswold said. "It's going to decimate the populations along the coast."
And the latest numbers from the coast don't say anything to argue against that point.
In Alabama alone since June 3, 10 birds and two sea turtles have been captured from the coast, covered in oil, still alive. But those numbers are nothing compared to 150 birds, 47 sea turtles and three mammals that have suffered oil-related deaths.
Back at the Wildlife Center, Griswold says we're not just losing birds, but a complete circle of life.
"They're such an important part of the ecosystem," she said. "Especially in wetland areas. They control fish populations and other animal species."
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