Oiled pelicans first rinsed with more oil before getting a bathBy The Associated Press
May 15, 2010, 6:02PM
Erica Miller, left, Heather Nevill, center and Danene Birtell clean a Brown Pelican
Saturday at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at Buras, La.
The bird was rescued after being exposed an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
caused by the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil platform more than three weeks ago.<snip>
The bird bath to remove crude oil started with a canola oil rinse. The lighter oil helped break up the crude blackening the brown pelican from beak to tail, bird rescuer Rebecca Dunne explained to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Saturday.
The bird was still black as it went into the first of four deep sinks full of soapy water at pelican body heat of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Even beak and pouch had to be soaped and rinsed, to keep the bird from swallowing more oil or getting oil back onto its feathers by post-bath preening.
It was a job for three people. At times, one held the beak, another held the body and a third held a wing outstretched for scrubbing or rinsing. All wore bright blue waterproof suits, yellow, shoulder-length waterproof gloves and rubber boots. Their shirts and pants were wet after the 35-minute bath and rinse -- sweat, said Dunne, of Newark, Del.-based Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, contracted by BP to lead the operation.
She said it can take 45 minutes and 300 gallons of water to wash a pelican.<snip>
More:
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