No thanks to BP, Exxon, or any other oil-floating corporate behemoth that risks endangering our coastal environments, I’ve decided to post this video from Jay Holcomb, Executive Director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center.

Jay and his fellow workers are busy cleaning up any marine life they can rescue from the Gulf oil spill.

In this video, he says oil-drenched pelicans first become hypothermic (since the water will no longer roll off their feathers), and then if they sit in the sun, they can overheat, because their skin can’t breathe under their matted feathers.

I’m sure the local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel are trained in this procedure, but hopefully we won’t see any oil-doused pelicans, turtles, or other marine life here in Shem Creek or elsewhere on the east coast like they have down at the Fort Jackson Rehabilitation Center in Louisiana.

If we do though, here’s a great before-and-after photo of their great work!

For more information, see Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response.
IMG SRC: flickr

btw: I’m sure Dove appreciated Jay’s quick plug!

Elected and municipal officials along with other community, nonprofit and business leaders from the Charleston region will discuss issues involving shoreline change management at the Charleston Community Leaders’ Forum on Shoreline Change July 13 at the Charleston County Public Services Building, DHEC reported.

Topics will include implications of chronic erosion, gradual sea level rise, increased shoreline development and comprehensive beachfront management planning. A public comment period began 5:30 p.m. yesterday.

Organized by DHEC in 2007, the Shoreline Change Advisory Committee is an advisory committee of a broad cross-section of stakeholders including scientists, coastal managers, municipal officials, developers, conservationists and legal professionals. The committee’s purpose is to organize existing shoreline research, identify research priority needs and consider policy-related issues concerning management of South Carolina’s estuarine and beachfront shorelines. A report of the committee’s findings is planned for late 2009.

The Charleston Community Leaders’ Forum on Shoreline Change is organized by DHEC’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management in partnership with S. C. Sea Grant Consortium, the College of Charleston and the City of Folly Beach.

For more information on the Shoreline Change Advisory Committee visit http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/ocrm/science/shoreline_comm.htm