"Noah's Ark" saves animals from Gulf oil spill
"Noah's Ark" saves animals from Gulf oil spill
On the chance that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatens some sea creatures with extinction, naturalist Jack Rudloe hopes his laboratory can save them.
Rudloe has launched Operation Noah's Ark, using his four-acre facility an hour south of Tallahassee to preserve more than 350 different specimens — everything from sharks to starfish, shrimp and batfish — in an environment that includes a grassland and duplicates high and low tides. And he's not doing it two by two. The fiddler crabs, for instance, number around 50,000.
Rudloe's Dickerson Bay laboratory is about 20 miles from the easternmost point where oil has been reported on Florida's Panhandle. Still, he worries about oil fouling his 50 tanks, which use saltwater pulled through an 800-foot pipeline from the Gulf. He is installing filtration systems just in case.
Rudloe said he hopes BP PLC will help fund the project; BP said it couldn't provide information on Rudloe's claim.
"If anybody should come to anybody, BP should be coming to him and say 'OK,'" said Robert Seidler, a Sopchoppy, Fla., filmmaker who has observed the Rudloe's operation for decades. "Nobody has the collective knowledge of the area like the Rudloes do. Every trend, storms, floods, red tides. He knows all of that."
Rudloe, who provides specimens for university and medical research, is well known nationally among marine biologists.
A New York native who moved to Florida in his early teens, Rudloe, who is self-taught, has joined with his wife to write books on the Gulf ecosystem along with articles for National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and other publications.
Rudloe has gotten some outside help since the spill. Pennsylvania-based Martin Marine shipped a $25,000 water-oil separator that Rudloe said could save the day, sifting out petrochemicals.
He will also use roughly 50 large water tanks to store "healthy seawater" to maintain hundreds of other critters, including sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sponges, sea horses and spinybox fish.
The BP spill isn't his first clash with oil companies.
In 1989, Rudloe cut his Exxon credit card in half and put it inside a plastic sandwich bag filled with oil to protest a spill created when the Exxon Valdez tanker dumped an estimated 32 million gallons of crude oil into pristine Alaskan waters after it grounded on a reef.
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- Posted on August 4, 2010
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This guy is really "cool". I love all animals exept bugs i don't like bugs; they creep me out. I wish I could help .
It talks about the oil spill in the Golf of Mexico and how it endangering the animals. This naturalist Jack Rudloe hopes that his laboratory can save the animals. He keeps sharks to starfish, shrimp and batfish. His laboratory is about 20 miles from the oil spill. He worry about the 50 tanks that he has , but he is installing filtration systems just in case.
Now that's a hard job, collecting and bringing all those animals, making sure they have the right temperature of water, buying food for all them, this guy has a skill, to save animals.
named Jack Rudloe who is trying to save sea creatures from extinction. He has about 50 tanks with over 350 species that he is trying to protect from the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. His laboratory is located in Florida and he has special filtration systems to ensure his creatures' water is clean. Rudloe moved to Florida from New York and is regarded highly by marine biologists even though he is self taught. He also writes books about the Gulf ecosystem and how to save all the sea creatures
I think this an amazing thing for people to do. I mean they spend so much of their time helping save animals lives, because of peoples mistakes with oil. This is a really good thing and we need more people to spend their time helping with the new oil spill in 2011.
Jack Roldoe is helping save over 350 different species animals.I think that he is doing an excellent job.First, he has envirments that create high and low tides.Next, Jack has a diverse group of creatures.Also, he provides specimens as his occupation, so he is experienced.
I find it a great idea to save animals from oil spills. I sure inspires me. I'm sure most people wouldn't take the time to go out of their way and help, but he did and hes making a difference in the world.
That is very nice of the Noah's Ark to save the poor animals from the oil spill. I would probably do the same to help animals because I like to help and just be helpful so that people can be helpfull to me when I need help.
That man is so kind to all those animals in the gulf and Florida. If it wasn't for people like him who knows how many species would no longer be around and whose fault it would be because of that. the fact that this man taught himself all this stuff is just amazing and that he found a woman just like him who is willing to give up her time to help animals from being in oil spills is so very generous and the fact that he named it Operation Noah's Ark just proves how great a person he is because it shows that he must believe in some greater force. This guy must be a marine biologist genius for all the things he's done and being known around the country for his work saving these animals is just mind blowing that so many people actually care for these tiny insignificant little creatures who otherwise probably couldn't help themselves.
i think that's sweet because no thing on this earth derives to surfer the oil spill I'm not joking because say u switched your life with a flounder and no one saved you how would you feel.BP should give him loads of money. He's saving animals they could have wiped out. So, they're fixing the oil pipe, that's not enough for me! Jack Rudole deserves lots of money to help his efforts, I could donate my money knowing that's going to a good cause.