AQUAHOLIC
By Aquaholic
And in better news….never forget that a small voice can make a difference amidst the cacophony of bureaucracy, greed, and apathy. Thanks to any and all who called in to report these violations!
2 weeks ago, Bob and I went for a stroll down the coast, along one of our fave places to walk Luke. To my horror, the undersides of the defunct Venoco (filed chapter 11 and is getting the boot from the SB coast) oil piers had been wrapped with a fine gauge plastic netting, thus destroying and thwarting the annual nesting efforts of our Swallows…a protected bird species in Calif.
We tried like heck to free those unfortunate birds who had wiggled through the maze of netting and got entrapped, to no avail. I immediately came home and began with an appeal on our hyper-local online news source, Edhat, and got some good advice on how to proceed. Calls were made to: local Wildlife Care Network, Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, SB Co. Game Warden and so on.
Today I was so thrilled to see all the netting has been removed. Sadly, I did not see a single Swallow, despite seeing hundreds of desperate, frantic ones 2 weeks ago. I hope they are just freaked out and will return, as they always do, to build their nests and raise their young.
Past Articles
- April 21, 2019: Swallows Entrapped in Nets on Venoco Pier
Good Job Aquaholic you saved the flock…
Many thanks to the GREAT people who got the netting removed. But there should be punishment & fines to the CRUEL IDIOTS (can I say that?) who caused this swallow colony “of hundreds” to collapse. This moronic behavior by humans is why species are crashing. That colony is toast. Laws were broken when those babies were netted over. Miles of migration & nest building & feeding by the parents… all down the drain. For what… to save an ugly bankrupt pier to nowhere? There should be jail time served. And the public should be educated from this inexcusable despicable tragedy.