Hundreds of seabirds washed ashore in South West

Hundreds of seabirds - some dead and others covered in oil - have been washed ashore in south-west England.

The RSPB believes most of the deaths were a "sad but natural occurrence" after the recent stormy weather.

In Devon, about 40 puffins, guillemots and razorbills were found at Thurlstone, while others have been reported from Hampshire to Cornwall.

Some of the "pitiful" oiled birds are being cared for at the South Devon Seabird Trust in Teignmouth.

The trust's founder, Jean Bradford, told BBC News: "It's a catastrophe and I think with everything else that's going on with people, the birds and other animals have been overlooked a little bit."

Continued

Ranchers Find Hope in Flightless Bird’s Fat

HAMILTON, Mont. — The Wild Rose Emu Ranch is a survivor in an unusual business.

In 1998, there were some 5,500 farms and ranches across the country raising emus, the gawky, five- to six-foot-tall flightless birds; now, the best guess is that there are 1,000 to 2,000. Once, emus were viewed as a potential growth industry, a godsend to struggling farmers.

But the industry’s downward trajectory may have been stayed.

It is not because the bird’s meat, which is very lean, is becoming more popular, although it is. Instead, it is in the large block of fat that covers most of the emu’s body, between the hide and the flesh, that ranchers are finding a glimmer of hope.

“The oil is beneficial for almost any kind of skin condition,” said Clover Quinn, the owner of the Wild Rose, as she rubbed some of the oil on her hands. While there are a few studies that demonstrate the oil’s effectiveness for some things, proponents say it has a wide range of uses.

Continued:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/us/emu-oil-aids-the-survival-of-an-unusual-industry.html?_r=0

Oil Giant Citgo Criminally Convicted in Bird Deaths (remind you of something?)

Here's a rule of thumb: if something is so toxic that birds die when they land on it, it's probably a good idea to put a cover on it.

In Texas yesterday, a federal district court upheld a criminal conviction against the oil refinery giant Citgo Petroleum after migratory birds landed in two open-top refinery tanks and died. Under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules and Texas law such tanks are supposed to be covered. The court found that the company had known birds were landing and dying in their tanks but failed to do anything about it.

Citgo faces some $2 million in fines. A too small price to pay I think for their negligent behavior.

In Canada's tar sands similar cases of migratory bird deaths have been ruled very differently. Many will remember the story in 2008 when 1600 of ducks landed on the massive lakes of tar sands toxic by-products and died.

Here's a news report at the time of the deaths: Syncrude, the tar sands giant responsible for the deaths was ordered to pay $3m in fines. But the deaths continued and again in 2010 when more than 500 ducks caught in a winter storm sought refuge on what they thought were fresh water ponds but died when those "ponds" turned out to be toxic lakes of sludge made Syncrude and Suncor. The ducks, covered in oily sludge had to be put down. In early October this year the Alberta government announced there will be no charges laid against Syncrude or Suncor because it was the winter storm that caused the ducks to land and there was nothing the companies could have done to prevent the deaths. Unlike Citgo, who's relatively small oil refinery tanks can easily be covered with nets, the toxic lakes in Northern Alberta that store all of the sludgy byproducts of tar sands operations are so large they can be seen from space and thus impossible to cover and protect from birds. So this tragedy has no end. As tar sands production increases, the size of these toxic lakes will increase and the birds that have flown this same migratory path for millions of years will continue to die. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/oil-giant-citgo-criminall_b_1958461.html