Gulf Oil Cleanup Crews Trample Nesting Birds

Standing on a white-sand beach at Florida's Gulf Islands National SeashoreThursday, blotchy stains from the Gulf oil spill could be seen creeping past the red-lettered "keep out" signs meant to protect nesting shorebirds.

And, according to conservationists, some well-meaning cleanup crews who unknowingly walk into nesting habitat may be doing more harm than the oil itself, experts say.

From April to August each year, rare shorebirds such as the snowy plover and least tern lay nests of two to three eggs directly on the softly undulating, open dunes about 40 feet (13 meters) from the water's edge.

Snowy plovers and least terns are considered threatened in Florida. When nesting, both species' survival depends on limited contact with people.

But with oil encroaching on Florida's coasts, an army of cleanup crews has descended on the seashore. About 44,300 people are now de-oiling roughly 450 miles (720 kilometers) of Gulf coastline, according to the website for theDeepwater Horizon Unified Command, the joint federal-industry task force responding to the Gulf oil spill.

With so many people working so close to breeding grounds, frightened adult birds are abandoning their nests, and adults and chicks are being inadvertently trampled. (See "Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Ten Animals at Risk.")

"Most of us know that the cleanup can do more damage than the oil could ever do," said Riley Hoggard, a resource-management specialist for Gulf Islands National Seashore (picture).

"Our bigger responsibility is to the [wildlife], whether it's to a turtle nest or nesting shorebirds. If we have to get cleanup teams off the beach, we'll do that—and deal with the oil cleanup later."