Oil spill's animal victims struggle as experts fear a mounting toll

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Oil spill's animal victims struggle as experts fear a mounting toll
By Juliet Eilperin and David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010

ON BARATARIA BAY, LA. -- In the Louisiana marsh, oil-coated pelicans flap their wings in a futile attempt to dry them. A shorebird repeatedly dunks its face in a puddle, unable to wash off. Lines of dead jellyfish float in the gulf, traces of oil visible in their clear "bells."

These scenes, scientists say, are confirmation of what they had feared for a month. Now that oil from the Gulf of Mexico's vast spill has come ashore -- in some places, as thick as soft fudge -- it is causing serious damage in one of the country's great natural nurseries.

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