Rubber ducky? (Freeze Frame).SPLISH, SPLASH, this bird is having a bath--at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Suisun City, California Suisun City (pronounced "suh SOON") is a city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 26,118 at the 2000 census. The city takes its name from the adjacent Suisun Bay, which in turn is named for the Suisunes, a Native American tribe of the area. . Rescuers used a toothbrush and Dawn dish soap to scrub off a suffocating suf·fo·cate v. suf·fo·cat·ed, suf·fo·cat·ing, suf·fo·cates v.tr. 1. To kill or destroy by preventing access of air or oxygen. 2. To impair the respiration of; asphyxiate. 3. coat of oil plastered to its feathers. The bird, a common murre murre (mör), common name for a group of diving birds of the same family as the auk and the puffin (family Alcidae) and including the guillemots. There are three species of murres, all about 18 in. (45 cm) long, brownish black above and white below. (Uria aalge), was one of 1,254 oily fowl found injured or dead along beaches from Point Reyes to Monterey in Northern California, where globs of mystery oil began washing up last winter. The Coast Guard and the California Fish and Game Commission are still trying to determine its source. "We're looking at historical shipwrecks and fuel and cargo oil spills from vessel traffic," says Lieutenant Tim Callister, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard's office of marine safety. One big clue: Oil has a unique fingerprint. Investigators may be able to match oil samples taken from the birds to leaky oil tankers or underwater shipwrecks. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , the murres must be thoroughly cleansed of oil, which destroys their feathers' natural waterproofing abilities and can cause them to freeze to death. Once squeaky clean, they're returned to San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay, 50 mi (80 km) long and from 3 to 13 mi (4.8–21 km) wide, W Calif.; entered through the Golden Gate, a strait between two peninsulas. . --N.D. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion