Names of BP Oil Spill Innocent Victim Identification

It seems fitting that on this Memorial Day, that aside from friends and family no longer with us, that my thoughts would be on those eleven first victims of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, off the shores of Louisiana. Certainly, they fall in the the category of "those who gave their all." We at least know their names.

However, an even greater sorrow fills my heart, for the innocent non-human victims that already have, or potentially will, lose their lives in the months to come. They are the ones most Americans, and almost no one outside of Louisiana, will even know the names of. They matter to me, and they need to matter to all of you.

As a Cajun American, I know that since way beyond the last two hundred and ninety-two years, my family has been in Louisiana. I have a deep connection to the strange and mysterious land, now known as the state of Louisiana. Few of my ancestors came there by choice, but we stayed and made it our home. We intermarried with local native peoples, who were there when we first arrived. There's a bond that flows through us, that goes deeper than the blood that flows in our veins.

I always figured I'd someday write (and have indeed written previously) about the unknown stories of our people, the land, and it's deep connection to the nature and especially the water. All of that is so intertwined to our real story. This isn't the story I planned. However, now it's the story I am obligated to tell the world. If I don't, my ancestors may never forgive me.

Maybe if I tell non-Cajuns about some of the innocent victims of this disaster, the very ones that they may not be able to identify -- you'll all come to understand what is at stake, is not just something that will affect Louisiana, but everyone.

My very practical and down to earth Cajun mother, Ginn Navarre, raised us to know that if one of us brought up a problem, we'd darn well better be the first one to start offering up solutions. It's not acceptable to just criticize, holler, and get mad about something that is wrong -- if you see a problem, you need to step up to be the first volunteer to figure out how to solve it.

Being her oldest child, I'm going to expand on her well-thought-out theory. For those big, outside-of-the-norm problems that concern the rest of the human and non-human race -- I'm thinking that you have to first also get everyone else up to speed in terms of understanding what the real problems are -- before you start throwing out solutions that they might not appreciate or grasp.

Now,it additionally seems to me, that already everyone who has an opinion on this man-made disaster, is wasting far too much time placing blame. There's plenty of time later for that. Besides, we all know the many lawyers will be doing that for us, since they are more than likely fighting to the death, for the opportunity to pursue this criminally and ethnically.

We need to stay focused as "one voice of outrage" and force those in power to put their efforts where they need to be -- on cleaning up and stopping this mess from spreading. This is no time for letting them cover their "butts" and figure out how to put their own spin on the situation get in the way. We need a plan of action now.

Among my Cajun extended family, the anger and frustration runs deep. Cousin Onezime is sure that this is another British plot (remember Cajuns have long and deep memories). None of us are going to forget how the greed of some British owned companies took our Acadian lands and practiced genocide in mass -- as they killed, enslaved, imprisoned, and scattered those Acadians who survived across the globe. The real horror of that time, could if you think about it, be solely placed upon the greed of both governments and rich men who were in a scramble to claim riches beyond imaginations of the common man and woman. The story still sounds pretty familiar if you ask me.

Now, Cousin Onezime is an oysterman. He's seventy-two years young and is facing an end to the only life and income he's ever known. He doesn't take much to English speaking outsiders who have little respect for Mother Nature. Can't blame him even though I know that this isn't the fault of the British.

By contrast, Cousin T-boy (shortened nickname for Theophile) is a much younger man -- he's a man who also depends upon the Gulf for his living, as a guide for both vacationing fishermen and hunters. Already half of his repeat customers, have cancelled their plans for the upcoming season based on the oil spill. Like Onezime, in his eyes, the future looks bleak.

Cousine Euphrosine runs a bed and breakfast on one of the barrier islands where oil has already made it's ugly appearance. Grand Isle only has a year round population of fifteen hundred inhabitants. Right now, her rooms are filled up with oil spill workers. She's exhausted cleaning up after them.

However, she's more exhausted from laying awake at night knowing that when they are gone, she will have no more returning tourists. In the past, there were more than twelve thousand of them flocking to the island. They won't be returning any more than many of the shore birds now buried in the slime.

Cousine Euphrosine's only son is a Marine biologist working for the Fish and Game. I can't repeat what his opinions are without getting banned by Google Adsense. His wife, Lorraine is a real estate broker, now second guessing her career choice. Vacation homes and already depressed real estate values, just went far below anything the current recession could have done to them.

My point? Each of their lives and their livelihoods are endangered or already extinct thanks to this preventable oil spill -- just like the other inhabitants of area -- the ones who have no voices -- the ones who have names that most of America does not know. Let's start with those living onshore before telling the marine based stories.

The Unknown Economic Value of Louisiana's Birds

Despite the fact that much has been written concerning the economic value of birds over the years, many people still do not appreciate just how important birds are to mankind and what an essential role they play in preserving the balance of nature. Birds, by the things they eat, perform a service to man in four principal ways:

• They consume tremendous numbers of noxious insects
• They are instrumental in controlling rats and mice
• They destroy great quantities of weed seeds
• They help clean the countryside of carrion

Most people today are not aware that each year agricultural losses caused by insects in the United States amounts to billions of dollars annually, and that is not counting losses to forestry and timber interests.

Additionally, many people are not aware that birds have a predilection for a diet of animal matter, either wholly or in part. This is even true of the majority of small land birds. One bird can eat over twenty-five hundred caterpillars. Even the common chickadee can consume four hundred and fifty plant lice.

You only have to watch the small birds in your own yard and gardens to know that nearly all of the birds continually search for food, energetically peering under leaves and along the bark of trees, from which they pick off tiny insects one after another. The world without them would be miserable in terms of just mosquitoes and gnats.

On the basis of what we know of the volume of insects that birds each each day, it would be conservative to say that, on average, each insectivorous bird in Louisiana consumed as many as one hundred insects a day. If we assume that there are at least five insectivorous birds per acre in Louisiana -- we would discover that no less than twenty-two and one-half million insects are ingested daily by the birds in that state.

The truth is, that the real figures are probably many times this number, since the assumption of each bird eats one hundred insects per day is very conservative. But, these simple numbers are enough to show how important birds are in controlling the insect population.

Insects are just one small aspect of the importance of birds in the Louisiana flyway and the birds endangered in the region where this oil spill has occurred. Beyond that, there are many other ways that birds are clearly defined in tangible ways as an economical asset -- both directly and indirectly. No less important, are the recreational benefits that birds afford the sportsman and a great many of people who just love to watch them at all times of the year.

There is a large and diverse order of life whose range is world-wide in the mix of potential oil spill victims. I'm talking about over fifty-nine species of birds alone who are threatened with endangerment or extinction with this oil spill. They are nearly all part-time inhabitants of the marsh shores, barrier islands, and the mainland of Louisiana. They depend upon the Gulf of Mexico and the creatures below this body of water.

Louisiana's long and jagged cost line with its tremendous expanses of inland salt marshes provide an ideal habitat for shore birds and their cousins -- and they arrive each year by the thousands.

In the summer, they are mainly denizens of the North, with the vast Arctic tundra abounding in both species and individuals. Many of them seem to dash northward, rear their young, and then dash southward again. The last of the transient shore birds to go up in the spring must surely meet the first individuals of one species or another to start back, since there is never a time when these little waders are entirely absent from the state of Louisiana.

In this group of potential victims of the oil spill are some of our truly long distance migrants. Take the Sanderling population for example. They travel over twenty-two hundred miles in the round trip between the extreme limits of their summer and winter homes. You see, they breed within the Arctic Circle and winter in far away Patagonia. However, a huge number of them only go as far south as Louisiana and the Gulf shores to find food and climate to suit their winter tastes. This disaster can and will affect far beyond the shores of Louisiana and beyond the United States.

Please understand that we need to all be aware of the role that every creature plays in the vital part of the scheme of things. The more we can preserve natural conditions, the less likely we are to upset the intricate relationships that exist between animals themselves and between the animals and their environment. Each animal is a part of the so-called web of life and may be likened to a cog in the wheels of a very delicate machine.

The unwise removal of a single cog may greatly impair or even stop the entire works. This is what's at stake with this Gulf oil spill -- both onshore and in the marine life. Protecting the birds throughout the Gulf coast region, is just one of the parts of an issue that demands our awareness and action in these troubled times.

Next -- Meet The First Bird Victims -- The Oystercatcher Family