GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL
We are asking all members that study birds in areas affected by the spill to provide brief updates on what you are doing to assess impacts and provide recovery efforts.
(Also please e-mail this information to the WS president, Chip Weseloh, Chip.Weseloh@ec.gc.ca).
We hope this website will serve as a forum for members to request assistance of other members and for members to offer their availability to assist. We invite State and Federal agencies to contact members who have posted on the website and to post their own needs as well.
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As an avian ecologist working for Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (formerly MMS) I am very interested in results of work completed on marshbirds related to the oilspill. BOEMRE is not a trust agency, but the agency is within the Department of Interior and I have participated in several of the conference calls for the Marshbird TWG. The information researchers can provide is particularly relevant to future NEPA work (EIS, EA, BOs/BAs) here in the Region. In addition, there is the potential to fund waterbird research, in particular, those species most heavily impacted, avian mortality estimation, carcass detection probability, and carcass persistence related to oil spill events (e.g., Flint et al. 2010). Additional priorities for the agency includes any T&E avian species potentially impacted by oilspills. I would like to know from the group what the research priorities are for waterbirds. As I consider projects for funding through the internal process I want to minimize potential overlap with other NRDA-based projects. I have provided my contact information below.
Jeffrey S. Gleason, PhD
Biologist
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement
1201 Elmwood Park Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70123
Phone:(504)736-2509
FAX:(504)736-2901
E-mail: jeffrey.gleason@boemre.gov