Marine scientists are examining the deaths of 20 baby dolphins whose carcasses have washed ashore in Mississippi and Alabama this year, the bulk of them since last week, researchers said on Tuesday.

The unusually large number of young dolphin deaths are being looked at as possible casualties of oil that fouled the Gulf of Mexico for months after a BP PLC drilling platform exploded in April 2010, killing 11 people and rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor.

The bodies of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins have been discovered since Jan. 20, most of them during the past week, on islands and beaches along a 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Mississippi, east to Gulf Shores, Alabama. That’s about 10 times the number normally found washed up along those two states during this time of the year, which is calving season for some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins in the region, said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport.

[continue at ABC26]

It was standing room only in Lafitte, with some wearing orange arm bands. But everyone was spellbound when Empire shrimper Elmer Rogers begged Ken Feinberg for help, falling to his knees.

“I’m not asking for the world, I’m just asking for something to live on man. That’s all I’m asking for. What you want me to do, get on my knees and beg for it? Look, I’m here, I’m on my knees for it. I need my money sir, to live.”

Feinberg responded to his cry.

“Thanksgiving, I was under review,” said Rogers. “My kids barely ate. I barely ate. Christmas came. Christmas came. My child is 13 years old. She got nothing. You know what she woke up to? No water in the house, and no power.”

“You’ll hear from me personally within the next day. Personally, you’ll hear from me,” Feinberg promised.

The crowd started out polite, but their frustrations and anger grew.

“This is my documentation, every ‘I’ and ‘T’ was dotted,” said Diane Poche. “I even put a letter from my Mayor Timmy Kerner in it, but I’m going to tell you something. They said I was denied because I didn’t have enough paperwork right here.”

“$5000, do not insult me,” exclaimed another woman.

But Feinberg bristled when asked what he learned from these meetings that he can use to improve the claims process.

“With all due respect, I’ve paid 170,000 people $3 billion dollars. I’m hearing from a few hundred people who remain frustrated. If even one person is frustrated, I want to try and deal with it.”

After he listened to Feinberg’s presentation, Lafitte’s mayor said he is hoping a special liaison will be appointed, someone who understands the needs and issues faced by those who live and work in this area.

“I’m a little disgusted because Mr. Feinberg, I think he’s a good man, and he’s trying to do a good job, but I don’t think he gets it,” said Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner.

“If that person is eligible to get a check, I’ll send that check,” said Feinberg. “If that person is ineligible, they ought to know they’re ineligible, and move on as best they can.”

Feinberg has promised to return.

(Source: WWLTV)

Curbside pickup of Christmas trees will begin within the municipalities in St. Tammany Parish on Jan. 6 and last for a week, parish government spokesman Tom Beale said. Residents can leave their trees out for pickup on their usual trash day, he said.

Residents who live in unincorporated St. Tammany should check with their trash hauler to see whether they will collect trees left on the curb, Beale said.

The parish has also set up collection sites in both eastern and western St. Tammany if residents choose to drop off their own trees. The sites are at the Florida Street entrance to the St. Tammany Parish Fairgrounds in Covington and at former St. Tammany Levee Board building at 61134 Military Road near Slidell.

Those drop-off locations are already accepting trees, Beale said. Trees must be stripped of all their tinsel and ornaments.

The trees collected in the parish are used for restoration projects in Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Lacombe, though the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources has stopped funding that program, Beale said.

Still, he said the parish is working to put the trees to use in restoration efforts.

“Over the next month or two we’ll get some more funding or get more volunteers,” Beale said.

In unincorporated Jefferson Parish and the town of Jean Lafitte, trees will be collected curbside on Jan. 6, 7 and 8. Parish officials asked that residents leave trees out on the night of Jan. 5 to ensure they are picked up.

Jefferson Parish officials have put out a call for volunteers so that the collected trees can be used in restoration projects in Goose Bayou near Jean Lafitte. Volunteers can meet at Cochiara’s Marina, 4477 Jean Lafitte Blvd., on Jan. 8, 15 and 22.

Anyone interested in more information on the project can contact the Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs at 504.731.4612.

In New Orleans, trees will also will be collected at the curb from Jan. 6 to Jan. 9. Residents are asked to put their trees on the curb on their regular collection day during this time period. Trees collection in the French Quarter, CBD and Warehouse District will be on Jan. 6 only.

The trees will be used in wetlands projects, the city said.

Christmas trees also are being collected in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, although details for pickup have not been finalized in either parish.

Trees collected in St. John will go to wetland restoration projects in the parish and elsewhere under a program administered by Southeastern Louisiana University’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station.

The trees are used to create fences that dissipate wave energy and result in sediment being deposited in shoreline areas affected by erosion, according to a news release from the university.

In St. Charles, residents also will be given locations to deposit their undecorated, unflocked trees, but details had not been finalized on Thursday, parish spokeswoman Renee Allemand Simpson said.

Information will be posted on the parish’s website and on the government information channel when the details are finalized, she said.

In previous years, the trees have been deposited near Bayou Gauche to shore up eroding land.

In addition to helping to protect the wetlands, diverting the trees away from landfills will save residents money in disposal costs in the long run, said Fred Stouder, a research associate at the Turtle Cove station, in a news release.

“Every year, thousands of Christmas trees are discarded in the landfill — where they take up valuable space and serve no purpose,” Stouder said. “If these trees are brought to one of the collection sites, they will be used to protect our coast and our wetland areas.”

In St. Bernard Parish, Christmas trees will be collected curbside Jan. 6, 7 and 8, the parish said.

Residents from Arabi to Paris Road should put their trees by the curb for pick up on Jan. 6; residents from Paris Road to Lexington Place in Meraux should put their trees along the curb on Jan. 7; and residents living east of Lexington Place in Meraux should put their trees by the curb on Jan. 8.

The parish doesn’t have a tree recycling project this year.

(Source: TP)