The Call

My life is marked by music. Different songs, like most people, take me to certain places in my life. When the phone rang and I got the message it reminded me of a Don Henley (of Eagles fame for those of you that don’t know) lost love song with a line that goes “I got the call that I didn’t want to hear”.   The difference in this call was that Don was expecting his call and it broke his heart, and this call not only broke my heart, but left me disgusted.

I was informed BP is burning sea turtles alive, and not just any turtles, but the extremely endangered Kemp’s Ridley turtles, the smallest know sea turtle, among others. While the turtles are starting to recover, the loss of even one is an issue.

myfoxtampabay.com reported Captain Mike Ellis physically witnessed the inhumane treatment.

During Captain Ellis’ you tube interview he stated, “They drag a boom between two shrimp boats, and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out.”

Captain Ellis wasn’t just cruising around checking out the operations, nor was he fishing and just happened to witness this horror. Captain Ellis was specifically there to save the animals, however BP personnel weren’t allowing him to do his job. Ellis said he had to cut short his three-week trip rescuing the turtles because BP quit allowing him access to rescue turtles before the burns.

“They’re pretty much keeping us from doing what we need to do out there,” Ellis said.

What are these people doing? Do they just figure this is ‘collateral damage’? This is not just unconscionable, but stupid.

One would naturally look at the nightmare that is BP’s public relations and figure someone in charge would know this would be something to fire up citizenry like never before. Not only that, they could be fined up to $50,000 per turtle. I realize that is a drop in the bucket in their overall budget but it’s still a lot of money.

I am not naïve enough to believe there wouldn’t be some animals hurt in a thousand different ways, but truly uncalled for behavior such as this can only be defined as heinous. This gate is open and there’s no way to put this oily horse back into its deepwater coral and there have been, and will be, horrors that make the average person grimace, and anyone with ecology morals, nauseated.

The L.A. Times article (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-burnbox-20100617,0,4814068.story?page=1 ) of June 17th was far more gentle and less pointed about BP’s actions saying only, “…the burn operations have proved particularly excruciating for the turtle researchers, who have been trolling the same lines of oil and seaweed as the boom boats, hoping to pull turtles out of the sargassum before they are burned alive.”

Sadly the reports indicate that not only are the turtles burned alive, numerous forms of sea life are lost as the sargassum is burnt. The sargassum weed is home for everything from baitfish to jellyfish the turtles eat. The birds have left the whole area for the most part because, simply stated, there is no food on the weed lines.

Scientists are torn about the burning oil. They want the oil stopped before it reaches the shore, but it’s heartbreaking many of them say, to watch the animals trapped and roasted alive. Heartbreaking doesn’t nearly cover it I say. That’s a wicked choice to have to make, and especially with BP fighting them.

To be fair, and we have to be, even with this beast named BP, I have to question some of the hype. If this is happening as stated, what action is the Coast Guard and other authorities taking and were they notified? It’s easy to cry wolf when there is a wolf, whether the wolf is full and not actually eating the sheep or not. There may be more to the story than reported. As the old saying goes, there’s three sides to every story…the two opponents’ stories and the actual truth.

So far, I have only been able to find accusations, and BP doesn’t seem to be talking, which might be the best take for them, since they seem to bury themselves regularly. I tend to believe what Captain Ellis is reporting, since BP has been incredibly irresponsible and reactive, not proactive, but I want to hear their response.

Oh yeah, in fact I can’t wait to hear their response. Don’t take this in the wrong vein, because it is deadly serious and will be for generations, but their hubris has thus far been so ridiculous I have had to laugh. So, I doubt this will be any different, and folks you can’t buy this kind of entertainment.

Lee Clymer is a columnist for West Orlando News on line.  He can be reached at: [email protected]