Conservation and Ethics

After making a one week trip to Louisiana July from 24 to August 1 to document the PB oil disaster it soon became clear to me I would need to return for a follow-up visit. With much of the major media quickly losing interest in this story, I felt compelled to see what, if any, progress had taken place since my previous visit. This time I would be limited to only four full days so I would have to make the best of it while I was there. So, before departing, I made plans with both Drew Wheelan (American Birding Association), who was spending much of his time on Grand Isle, and local wildlife photographer Charlie Bush who lives in Houma, Louisiana.

On April 19, 2010 I, like most people, had never heard of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. All that changed a day later when it exploded and killed eleven men, eventually sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. As the oil started to gush into the ocean, my reaction was one of disbelief. I was horror-struck at the thought of how the birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast would be impacted. How long would oil continue to flow? How many gallons per day? For weeks no one seemed to have the answer. Days turned into weeks, then weeks turned into months. It looked as if oil might spew until Christmas! What could I or anyone else do to help?

Almost three months would pass before good friend and fellow photographer Alex Couter and I decided to fly to Louisiana to see the situation for ourselves and document as much as we could. By this time the BP oil disaster had become the largest of its kind in US history. The total amount of oil discharged into the Gulf would be eventually estimated at two hundred million gallons. That is almost a staggering 1,470,000 gallons per day.

Editor’s note: This is the second and final installment of a two part interview with controversial writer and environmental activist Derrick Jensen (see part one here). Author Carl Donohue spoke with Derrick (www.derrickjensen.org) in November 2007, exploring various concepts related to the subject matter of Jensen’s three books, A Language Older Than Words, Listening to the Land, and Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening to the Nightmare of Zoos. As he had hoped, Carl found Derrick’s responses to be insightful and thought provoking. Part two begins midway through Carl and Derrick’s conversation, as they discussed the exploitation of animals in zoos.

Text and photo copyright Joe McDonald, all rights reserved.

Last year I attended the annual NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) summit where one of the breakout sessions was concerned with “The Ethics of Subject Welfare: Animals, People, and the Land.” If you’ve ever been to a NANPA summit you know that there is an annual debate or discussion on the use of captive animals, and whether or not this is something nature or wildlife photographers, or NANPA attendees, should be doing, or even condoning.