300-400 oiled pelicans on Racoon Island (Verified)
* Location Racoon Island, LA
* Date Jul 23 2010
* Time 01:34
Raccoon Island is the site of one of the state's largest colonial waterbird nesting colonies and a particularly important nesting area for brown pelicans. Last week, researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported spotting at least 300-400 oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island, an area where government officials had documented only 68 oiled pelicans.
The difference in the numbers highlighted the counting method used by the government, which includes only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or whose dead carcasses are collected to use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies.
Marc Dantzker, one of the Cornell ornithologists, said efforts to protect the island with boom were insufficient. Raccoon Island is one of Louisiana's most important nesting grounds."There are more and more birds with oil on them," Dantzker said.
