Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research is responding, in cooperation with Nature’s Nursery, to hundreds of ducks and geese affected by an oil leak from a storage tank in Bryan, Ohio, USA.
As of Thursday six birds, three geese and three ducks, have died and more than 400 birds have been rescued and are being stabilized at the site before being transported to Nature’s Nursery for cleaning. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and local volunteers assisted in the capture of the birds.
The lubricating oil spill was caused by a problem with a valve on an above-ground storage tank. While some oil has not been recovered due to heavy rains and high water levels, the spill has been declared cleaned up by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The total amount of oil spilled has not yet been determined.
Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research has been responding to oiled wildlife since 1976 and was the lead wildlife response unit during the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010. Nature’s Nursery Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation Education was established in 1989 to care for sick, injured and orphaned native wildlife and to provide conservation education programmes for children and adults in Northwest Ohio.
Resources:
Oil Spill Injures More than 400 Birds. Toledo Blade. Accessed online 8 January 2015
400 Birds Rescued From Oil Spill in NW Ohio. WCBE Central Ohio NPR News. Accessed online 8 January 2015