Ocean Sentry
(From nytimes.com) New Orleans – A sheen of oil coated the Mississippi River for nearly 100 miles from the center of this city to the Gulf of Mexico on Friday following the worst oil spill here in nearly a decade. Around noon, after two days with no ship traffic, the Coast Guard opened the river to limited use.
Some environmentalists worried about reports of fish and bird kills in sensitive marsh areas downstream, though officials said they had so far heard of only a handful of oil-covered birds.
Booms to protect areas richest in wildlife, at the river’s mouth, were being deployed, officials said.
