News Roundup - Wildlife impacts

LA Times reports that even as BP officials consider a new method to clog the leaking well, Krista Schlyer, a freelance photographer working for the group Defenders of Wildlife, said she saw an oily sheen churning in the surf around Breton Island National Wildlife Refuge, .

It’s spawning season in the Gulf for bluefin tuna, a species already suffering from drastic declines in population. Kevin Spear with the South Florida Sun takes a look at bluefin and other species in peril from the oil spill.

Brown pelicans, whose numbers have been decimated by the disappearance of marshlands, were only just removed from the endangered species list this past November. Jeff Corwin and CBS reports how the oil spill could undercut the species’ recent comeback.

Concentrations of fish are actually 25-50 percent higher near oil rigs than in open waters, creating man-made reefs that could be wiped out by an oil spill. Jeff Corwin dives in to investigate this underwater paradox up close.

The Gulf is one of the most important breeding grounds for the planet’s sharks, reports CBS and Jeff Corwin.  

Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the Deepwater Horizon spill as light crude, which leaves a film on intertidal resouces and has the potential to cause longterm damage to wildlife, from plankton all the way up the food chain.