BP’s devastation on wildlife

The oil has now reached the Florida Panhandle and the source of the spill is still pouring around 10,000 barrels of oil in the ocean each day.

The latest attempt to ‘contain’ the spill partially worked, so now BP is actually collecting around 10,000 barrels of oil a day rather than losing them to the ocean forever, because we all know that in the end they don’t want to close the well for good, they just want to get the oil out to sell it.

And the first images of the catastrophe (and the first hints of BP’s attempts to hide their mess) are bubbling to the surface like that foul oil:

"When we found this dolphin it was filled with oil. Oil was just pouring out of it. It was the saddest darn thing to look at," said a BP contract worker who took the Daily News on a surreptitious tour of the wildlife disaster unfolding in Louisiana.

His motive: simple outrage.

"There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don't want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It's important to me that people know the truth about what's going on here," the contractor said.

The grasses by the shore were littered with tarred marine life, some dead and others struggling under a thick coating of crude.

"When you see some of the things I've seen, it would make you sick," the contractor said. "No living creature should endure that kind of suffering."

The uninhabited barrier islands are surrounded by yellow floating booms, also stained black, that are supposed to keep the oil out. It's not working.

"That grass was green a few weeks ago," the contractor said. "Now look. ... This whole island is destroyed. How do you write a check for something like this?"

He said he recently found five turtles drowning in oil.

BP's central role in the disaster cleanup has apparently given the company a lot of latitude in keeping the press away from beaches where the oil is thickest.

And this is what BP’s gift to humanity looks like:

 

Finally, a sobering video:

Heart wrenching.