BP spill rescue pelican returns from Georgia to Louisiana

<p>QUEEN BESS ISLAND, La. &mdash; A pelican rescued from the <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/deepwater-horizon-spill">2010 oil spill,</a> cleaned of oil and released in Georgia has returned 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) to an island <a href="https://apnews.com/article/1dc194de5c9285ea6262fa22bf4662ec">restored</a> last year for pelicans and other seabirds. </p>
<p>It was among 5,000 oil-covered birds collected in and off Louisiana during the spill, and among 582 pelicans that were rehabilitated, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a news release Thursday. </p>
<p>Biologists don’t know just when it returned to Queen Bess Island. But a photo taken in March by a department biologist clearly shows the red band marked “33Z” that was put around the bird’s leg after its rescue on June 14, 2010, at the Empire jetties in Barataria Bay. </p>
<p>“It’s truly impressive that it made its way back from Georgia,’’ said Casey Wright, who spotted and photographed the pelican on a rock jetty on Queen Bess Island, which held 15% to 20% of Louisiana’s pelican nests even when only about 5 acres (2 hectares) were high enough for the big birds to nest. </p>
<p>About 36 acres (14.6 hectares) are now available to birds, the department said. </p>
<p>After time with a bird rehabilitator, the pelican was taken by plane to a U.S. Coast Guard station in Brunswick, Georgia, because the spill was still going on — the well wasn’t capped until Sept. 19, 2010. The bird was released on July 1, 2010. </p>
<p>Other birds released in Georgia, Texas and Florida have been spotted back in Louisiana, the department said. Zoos hold 11 that could not be released.</p>
<p>“Brown pelicans, like most seabirds, are thought to be hard-wired, genetically, to return to their birth colony to breed, despite moving long distances during the non-breeding season,’’ department ornithologist Robert Dobbs said. “That may be an overly simplistic generalization, but re-sighting data of banded pelicans often support that pattern.’’</p>
<p>The dead and live birds collected in Louisiana made up about 65% of all recovered across the Gulf of Mexico, and brown pelicans made up more than one-fifth of the total, according to the department. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2016 that the spill killed 65,000 to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2016/06/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-killed-as-many-as-102000-birds-across-93-species/#:~:text=Deepwater%20Horizon%20oil%20spill%20killed,species%20%7C%20U.S.%20Fish%20%26%20Wildlife%20Service">102,000 birds,</a> though other estimates are <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/gulfspill-impacts-summary-IP.pdf">much higher.</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/46127a3fa6f70154c2aaa0d48b83de03">Bird populations</a> are back to pre-spill levels, scientists say.</p>