In memory of Jay Holcomb, pioneer in oiled wildlife care.

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Monte Merrick

read IBR’s statement on Jay Holcomb’s passing

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am saddened to note the passing of Jay Holcomb. As Executive Director of International Bird Rescue, Jay responded to hundreds of oil spills around the world including two of the largest spills in US history – Exxon Valdez in Alaska and Deepwater Horizon on the Gulf Coast. His energy and his commitment to excellent oiled wildlife care were unique in the world, and he will be missed by many. Through his organization, effective protocols to treat oiled wildlife spread internationally. Jay’s impact was enormous, and his death will not slow that impact down. Jay Holcomb lives.

I worked directly with Jay from 2002 until 2009. I was inspired by him and challenged. It was Jay who accepted me into the obscure profession of oil spill response and more broadly, wild aquatic bird care. I am grateful for those 7 years working with Jay and for the direction the time spent working with him has given my own life and work. No doubt there are very many people who feel this way.

I think it is safe to say that Jay placed more trust in his own intuition than he did in any abstract set of rules or protocols. He would easily place someone in a position of responsibility based on his sense of that person rather than her or his resume. This was certainly the case with me. When Jay hired me to monitor a small breeding band of the threatened Western Snowy Plover in Trona, a surreal dry salt lake mine in the Mojave desert, my credentials did not support his decision – I had been a wildlife rehabilitator in the Seattle area for only 3 years – I was not a biologist. Frankly I was disturbed by this. I wondered if he knew what he was doing. I was forced by these circumstances to learn what I could as quickly as possible. This wasn’t the last time that Jay did this with me. When the Cosco Busan struck the Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay on a foggy November morning in 2007, over 1000 Surf scoters, Western grebes, Greater Scaup and others were coated in the bunker fuel that gushed from the vessel’s torn side. Jay was running the “washroom,” where the stricken birds were cleaned after being stabilized. At the end of the first day, Jay turned the room over to me. There was no time to argue. I did the best job I could. I am sure many wondered why he had placed such a difficult task in the hands of someone as un-noteworthy as I.

As with most who follow their own compass, Jay could be controversial. I would be disingenuous if I did not admit my own ambivalent feelings. In 2009 Jay and I had a falling out over decisions he made that I thought were damaging to our program and staff. I left IBR at this time, feeling betrayed. Ironically, Jay had once said to me that the large number of wildlife rescue organizations that had been started by people who had broken off from him in anger actually pleased him. He was glad to see our profession grow, even in this manner.

Two years later, while caring for scores of fish-oiled Brown pelicans with Bird Ally X, an organization I co-founded with others who left IBR in 2009, Jay sent me an email that he was glad we were “out there” working for wildlife. We exchanged occasional emails after that, until his death.

It may be odd to say that in Jay’s sickness was an opportunity, yet knowing he was gravely ill gave many of us a chance to reach out to him, to re-kindle warmth and to acknowledge and celebrate his profound impact. Jay’s death is a reminder to me, and perhaps to us all, that this world, damaged by people, is also repaired by people: not by gods, not by perfect beings, but by people – with conflicted, complicated mixes of motives, experiences, desires and most of all, a passion for the wild and an unshakeable conviction that action is necessary to protect and rescue our wild kith and kin when they are injured by our modern world.

I miss knowing Jay is out there. My grief is like your grief. We are glad he is at peace, and we mourn the absence of his life and breath. I wish him well in the next place his spirit ventures, and I wish you all well in the work that you do, everyday, on behalf of wild animals.

Take care,
Monte Merrick

photo of Jay, January 2009, speaking to volunteers at IBR in Cordelia, CA. photo taken by Laura Corsiglia

Gull Rescued Today in Trinidad

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Monte Merrick

15 minutes before closing on 18 March the phone rang at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. A young gull with a fish hook through his beak was begging for food at the Lighthouse Grill in Trinidad, about 15 miles north of Arcata.

When we arrived on the scene, we found exactly what the caller had described. With a little bit of patience and a little bit of available bait (by the way, the french fries from the Lighthouse Grill looked very good – hopefully we’ll get back for more when on less pressing business!) and with the appreciated assistance of the folks who made the initial call, we were able to net the young Glaucous-winged gull. We returned to the clinic and removed the nasty hook. There is no more rewarding work than succussfully removing a hook from a wild animal. (update: local ornithologist Rob Fowler has observed (see comment below) that this bird is most likely a Glaucous-winged x Western hybrid, so here’s a link to Western gulls too!)

The gull is in care now, treated with pain medication and offered healthy hook-free fish! The bird has an excellent prognosis.

Thanks to Julie and friend who made the call and stayed to help, to the onlookers who watched from a safe distance, to the older gull whose competition for the french fries made our soon-to-be-patient less wary of our net, and to everyone who supports our work and makes it possible for us to go on these rescues and provide the necessary care!

To learn more about fishing line and how it effects local wildlife check out this story from a month ago. All pictures Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

“It’s impossible to know if he’ll survive, but at least we gave him a fighting chance.”

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Monte Merrick

A Right Whale was freed from hundreds of feet of fishing rope through the joint efforts of Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Read the statement (below the video) from Georgia DNR describing the action and also the threats these endangered whales face.

Individual rescue is necessary, but without prevention there won’t be anyone left to rescue.

Endangered Whale off Georgia Coast Partially Freed from Fishing Gear
SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. (2/20/2014)
Multi-agency Response Highlights Need to Prevent Entanglements

A young North Atlantic right whale is swimming easier after wildlife biologists cut away most of the 100-plus yards of heavy fishing rope the animal was dragging.

The disentanglement effort, much of which occurred 40 miles off Georgia’s Wolf Island Monday, was relatively quick for the 4-year-old male whale, one of only about 450 remaining North Atlantic right whales.

Directed to the whale by an aerial survey team and a satellite tracking buoy monitored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), authorized staff with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission assessed the entanglement and threw a device called a cutting grapple across the trailing rope. Seconds later, the thick rope parted.

But responders could not remove all of the rope because the whale avoided the boats and because the rope is likely entangled in its baleen – the filter-feeding structures inside the mouths of baleen whales.

The hope is the whale known to researchers as No. 4057 will shed the rest of the rope on its own. Some North Atlantic right whales have; some haven’t. Responders won’t know No. 4057’s fate until, or unless, he is seen again. Entanglement in commercial fishing gear is one of the leading causes of death and injury for North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species and one of world’s most imperiled whales.

Wildlife biologist Clay George, who heads right whale research for Georgia DNR, said No. 4057 has severe injuries on his head and flukes. Those wounds and the fact that the whale is still partially entangled highlight the need to prevent entanglements.

“Disentanglement can’t save every whale,” George said. “The focus must be on prevention.”
More than 80 percent of North Atlantic right whales bear scars from rope entanglements, and almost 60 percent have been entangled twice.

Entanglement is a chronic problem for the species, said Barb Zoodsma, NOAA Fisheries’ coordinator of right whale recovery efforts in the Southeastern U.S. “Most entanglements occur in gillnet and trap/pot gear that is left to soak in the water unattended for long periods.”  NOAA Fisheries formed the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team in 1996 to reduce injury and death of right, fin and humpback whales from fishing gear. While progress has been made, entanglement rates remain high, especially for critically endangered right whales.

North Atlantic right whales swim from Canada and New England each year to bear their young in the Southeast’s warmer waters. Agencies including the DNR, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and NOAA monitor whales, respond to injured, entangled or dead whales, collect genetic samples for research and protect right whale habitat.

University of North Carolina Wilmington researchers conducting an aerial survey for the U.S. Navy spotted right whale No. 4057 off Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday. A Duke University boat team also doing research for the Navy attached a suction cup-mounted tag to temporarily track the whale’s movements while FWC biologists were en route. The biologists removed more than half of the 11/16-inch diameter, lead-weighted rope and attached a satellite tracking buoy to the remaining rope so the whale could be relocated the next day.

“Coordination between research teams is essential during these types of events,” said Katie Jackson, an FWC wildlife biologist. “Because the whale was found late in the day, we had a narrow window of time to assess the whale’s condition and its entanglement and decide on a course of action.”

An FWC aerial survey team relocated the whale 40 miles east of Wolf Island on Monday morning. The whale had covered 60 miles in less than 17 hours. A team of DNR and FWC biologists worked from boats to remove most of the remaining rope.

It’s not known where the rope came from or the specific type of fishing it had been used for. “Judging from its wounds, I suspect this whale had been hauling that rope for weeks or longer,” George said. “It’s impossible to know if he’ll survive, but at least we gave him a fighting chance.”

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The species was decimated by commercial whaling in the late 1800s.

Since whaling was banned in 1935, the recovery of North Atlantic right whales has been limited by mortality from ship collisions and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. While the population is increasing at an annual rate of 2.7 percent, there are still fewer than 100 breeding females left.