These are only highlights from today's EcoTone post, details and links to mentioned resources are available at http://www.esa.org/esablog/conservation/taking-action-what-is-being-done-and-what-you-can-do-for-the-gulf/. If you have more information on volunteer opportunities or other rescue and response information, please comment here or on the blog post itself. More targeted information for ecologists will be distributed tomorrow.
Volunteer: There are MANY volunteers opportunities ongoing in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. Keep in mind that many of these volunteer efforts require specialized training and protective gear-petroleum is toxic to the respiratory system and the skin. BP has just announced its training location for volunteer oil spill cleanup-at the Mobile Civic Center in Alabama through May 21. The training is four-tiered ranging from oil spill responder to wildlife rehabilitation. Call 1-866-647-2338 to register for classes. Audubon is also organizing a large scale volunteer effort-a registration form is available online to place volunteers based on their training, experience and resources. Share your datasets: The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and NOAA have begun gathering water and sediment samples throughout Florida; Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have also been working with state agencies and NOAA. The aim is to develop a pre-impact wildlife assessment to make monitoring possible impact sites faster and more accurate. This sampling has been started using the NOAA Natural Resource Damage Assessment protocols. More information on dataset collection will be posted tomorrow on EcoTone and distributed to Ecolog-l. Train and volunteer to clean oiled wildlife: Federal and state agencies are also coordinating with the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research (Tri-State) to rescue oiled birds as well. Volunteers are being recruited on a state-by-state basis-information is updated regularly on the Deepwater Horizon Facebook page and on the oiled wildlife Facebook page. International Bird Rescue Research Center is working with Tri-State to set up rehabilitation centers in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. NOAA has designated the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program the primary responders in the state for responding to marine mammals; the program is accepting volunteers. The New England Aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Team is offering oiled wildlife training. The Oiled Wildlife Care Network is also providing daily news updates on their blog. Report oiled, injured or deceased wildlife: To report injured or oiled wildlife, call 1-866-557-1401 and leave a message. Messages will be checked hourly. To report spill-related damage, call 1-800,440-0858, and to inquire about volunteering, or to report oil on the shore, call 1-866-448-5816. Reports of oiled animals and oil slick sightings are being mapped on The Oil Spill Crisis Map which is being used by responders as well. You can report these areas by texting or emailing.
