BP Is Hiding Dead Animals to Avoid Fine of $50,000 Per Dead Animal (and the Bad Publicity)

BP has been trying to hide dead birds and other sealife.

Fox News reports that BP is trying to keep animal carcasses away from public view:

Local Gulf Coast residents and those monitoring turtles say that BP is removing carcasses at night to hide them from the public:

Jerry Cope and Charles Hambleton report:

The numbers of birds, fish, turtles, and mammals killed by the use of Corexit will never be known as the evidence strongly suggests that BP worked with the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, private security contractors, and local law enforcement, all of which cooperated to conceal the operations disposing of the animals from the media and the public.

The majority of the disposal operations were carried out under cover of darkness. The areas along the beaches and coastal Islands where the dead animals were collected were closed off by the U.S. Coast Guard. On shore, private contractors and local law enforcement officials kept off limits the areas where the remains of the dead animals were dumped, mainly at the Magnolia Springs landfill by Waste Management where armed guards controlled access. The nearby weigh station where the Waste Management trucks passed through with their cargoes was also restricted by at least one sheriff's deputies in a patrol car, 24/7.

Robyn Hill, who was Beach Ambassador for the City of Gulf Shores until she became so ill she collapsed on the job one morning, was at a residential condominium property adjacent to the Gulf Shores beach when she smelled an overwhelming stench. She went to see where the odor was coming from and witnessed two contract workers dumping plastic bags full of dead birds and fish in a residential Waste Management dumpster, which was then protected by a security guard. Within five minutes, a Waste Management collection truck emptied the contents and the guard departed.

Independent biologists are also being blocked from investigating wildlife.

What's the reason for this cover up?

I had assumed that all such shenanigans were just to keep the dead wildlife away from public view.

But as the Christian Science Monitor pointed out in June:

Federal laws makes BP liable for up to $50,000 per dead animal on the endangered species list, such as a Kemp's Ridley turtle.

It's not just the Kemp's Ridley. Sperm whales and hawksbill turtles are also endangered animals living in the Gulf.

So are Brown pelicans, which have been hit hard by the oil spill.

In fact, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service lists 29 endangered species in the Gulf which could be harmed by the spill.

You already know that BP is trying to hide the amount of oil which has leaked into the Gulf in order to reduce the amount of fines it has to pay under the Clean Water Act (see this and this).

Similarly, BP is also trying to secretly dispose of endangered animals killed by the spill in order reduce its fines under the Endangered Species Act.