BP oil spill: Endangered species still at risk

US officials recorded a big jump in the numbers of dolphins and endangered brown pelican and sea turtle injured or killed by the BP spill over the past week, even as officials were proclaiming that the oil was rapidly disappearing from the Gulf. Some 1,020 sea turtles were caught up in the spill, according to figures today–an ominous number for an endangered species. Wildlife officials collected 177 sea turtles last week–more than in the first two months of the spill and a sizable share of the 1,020 captured since the spill began more than three months ago. Some 517 of that total number were dead and 440 were covered in oil, according to figures maintained the Deepwater Horizon response team. "It is a high number for any endangered species," said Elizabeth Wilson, a scientist for the Oceana conservation group. The number of dolphins, whales and other marine mammals captured or found dead also rose last week, from 69 to 76. An analysis by the National Wildlife Federation said the numbers of oiled birds collected had nearly doubled since the well was capped, from 37 to 71 a day. It was not immediately clear why the numbers of injured and dead wildlife have jumped. Kevin Godsea, a fish and wildlife official overseeing the rescue of threatened brown pelican, said many of the more recent victims were hatchlings who took their first flights right into the oil. "We had a lot of young birds hanging right around the boomed areas of rookeries, and lot of those young birds are testing out their wings and they are getting right into the oil," he said.