The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) the largest bird in Charleston, South Carolina and also my favorite of all of the animals that call The Lowcountry home, a bird that leaves people in awe of its fifty foot dives into a school of fish only to draw its beak out of the water and throw back a mouth full of fish. This bird has exhibited multiple accounts of resilience bouncing back from several devastating hits to its population specifically in the United States with the most recent being in 2010 due to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Now these birds face another potential threat of oil drilling along the East Coast of the United States presenting another challenge these birds may have to overcome. The Deepwater Horizon spill devastated the Louisianan coasts brown pelican population in 2010, Atlantic oil drilling if approved could put the brown pelican population of Charleston, South Carolina in a similar situation.

Being born and raised in Charleston I found myself at a young age falling in love with the diverse ecosystem that makes up The Lowcountries salt marshes. This love for my surroundings drove me to actually begin working in these beautiful salt marshes and becoming ever more interested in the animals that call the Lowcoutry home. The Brown Pelican became my center of attention after about four years of giving ecological tours in the southern portion of Charleston, after years of using these animals to find bait for fishing and actually saving a juvenile pelican with a broken leg I fell in love with these birds and began to learn everything I could about this awe-inspiring animal.

Charleston is home to several Brown Pelican nesting sites including Deveaux Banks which holds an estimated sixty-seven percent of South Carolinas nesting population and twenty-five percent of the entire Atlantic coasts nesting population. "Brown pelicans feed exclusively on fish they capture by diving headfirst into the water. The birds have excellent eyesight and can spot fish from as high as 60 feet ...  pelicans scoop or dip the fish into their pouches, rise to the water's surface, tilt their bills forward to drain the water, then toss their heads up and back to swallow" (Tangley). With this technique of catching food these pelicans have evolved to develop a way to actually protect themselves from the impact they take when hitting the water at the high rates of speed involved in this feeding method. "That crash is cushioned by air-sacs under the skin that also allows them to bob easily on the surface. They eat half their weight in fish per day ... " (Simbeck). These birds have a seven-foot wingspan and weigh between seven-and a half to ten pounds, the "air sac" mentioned by Simbeck is known as a subcutaneous air-sac which acts as an airbag when the pelican performs his aerial dive into the water hunting fish. This unique feeding style allows for fishermen to locate schools of bait fish, is a popular site for tourists in Charleston to flock to see, and also sets the brown pelican apart as one of two pelican species in the world to exhibit this behavior. 

The Deepwater Horizon spill began on April 20, 2010 and continued to spill oil for eighty-seven days until July 15, 2010, in this time this well located five-thousand feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico released an estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil (Ocean Portal Team) Of this estimated 130 million gallons of oil researchers believe "As much as 20 percent of the spilled oil may have ended up on top of or in the seafloor, damaging deep-sea corals and potentially damaging other ecosystems that are unseen at the surface" (Ocean Portal Team). In addition to this in Drew Griffin's article for CNN "5 Years After the Gulf Oil Spill: What We Know  --  CNN.com." a study done by Mandy Joye, an oceanographer with The University of Georgia, shows with research done with underwater robots that the oil from the Deepwater Horizon site has scattered across at least 1200 square miles of seafloor. As for the brown pelican its category of seabirds took a major blow from the spill "Seabirds were initially harmed by crude surface oil- even a small bit of oil on their feathers impacted their ability to fly, swim and find food by diving" (Ocean Portal Team). Over one thousand miles of coastline stretching from Texas to Florida was affected by the spill this also caused erosion rates to increase in these areas which although these areas were cleaned from the spill, the erosional damage will take much longer to recover from (Ocean Portal Team).

As for the Louisianan coast there are an estimated eight-sixteen thousand nesting Brown Pelicans each year (Tangley). With a nesting population similar to that of South Carolina the Louisianan coastline was devastated in 2010 with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to Tangley "The timing of the spill could not have been worse: Pelicans, which nest colonially on offshore barrier islands, were at the start of their annual nesting season when the oil rig exploded" and she would go on to say "The majority of the nesting islands hit by oil are in Louisiana". With this unnatural disaster occurring during such a critical time during the year for the brown pelican the population was devastated, by mid summer of 2010 fifty-eight percent of all dead or injured birds were brown pelicans (Tangley) on top of this disaster is that the brown pelican was just taken off of the threatened endangered species list not even a year prior to the spill. With the large amount of pelicans specifically being harmed by the oil present during this spill it is clear that if another event similar to that of the Gulf Oil Spill were to take place in an area such as Charleston that also holds large amounts of pelicans that there would be similar if not worse outcomes amongst the brown pelican population.

The affects of the BP oil spill on nesting islands off of Louisiana became more and more devastating as oil continued to spew from the broken well, in the video "Visit to Cat Island (47th Day of the BP Oil Spill)" Rick Stiener an oil spill specialist from The University of Alaska discusses the toll the oil spill has taken on Cat Island a bird sanctuary off of Louisiana's coast. Specifically, he describes how the oil is affecting the birds as they become oiled they lose their ability to fly which is also their main tool when feeding, also he describes their attempted to clean themselves of the oil by preening themselves which causes them to ingest the oil. Stiener brings up that by cleaning themselves of this oil and actually ingesting it may not necessarily harm them initially, but as time goes on may cause additional health problems with themselves as well as their offspring. Another point brought up in this video is that the amount of birds actually recovered dead is estimated to be about ten to fifteen percent of the actual total due to birds lost in the mangroves they nest in as well as those who make it offshore, die, and then sink. In the event of a spill in the Atlantic similar events would be likely to take place along the coast of South Carolina, Deveaux banks is located at the mouth of the North Edisto River with its eastern most edge directly on the Atlantic Ocean. This would allow for oil to wash directly on the beach of the island and potentially for it to wash into the tidal marsh located in the center of the island. A direct comparison between Cat Island and Deveaux banks can be made considering the exposure to the open ocean as well as the tidal fluctuation that takes place in both areas. 

The initial damage done by this spill unfortunately was only the beginning, effects from the spill were still observed even five years after the spill took place. For example, in Debbie Elliot's article "5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Effects Linger And Recovery Is Slow" she provides a first hand account of an avid outdoorsman and environmental writer for The Lens where he describes the day the oil reached the coast during the peak of brown pelican nesting season saying "It was hitting these islands, coating the roots of the mangroves and also the birds were diving... The adults would come back after looking for food and sit down on their eggs and there was oil on the eggs". Another issue that came up as time went on was the erosion of these nesting islands due to the dying mangroves that play a critical role in holding these islands together. Marshall says "without the mangroves to hold the islands together, within three years most of those islands were gone". Unlike many of Louisiana's coastal islands which have mangroves as their main vegetation, Charleston is home to Spartina Grass which is a grass commonly found in the salt marshes of Charleston's coastal estuaries. While these are two different plant species they both operate on a similar filtration system that allows them to bare extended exposure to salt water, a trait that allows both plants to thrive and almost completely occupy their respective habitats. In the event of a similar spill in the Atlantic to that of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a similar issue could arise from the death of Spartina Grass that holds the coastal ecosystem together, thus leading to the destruction of habitat for the Brown Pelican as well as many other species located in the ecosystem.

Despite the events that took place during the BP oil spill in 2010 it is undeniable that there are clear benefits to the opening of oil fields in the Atlantic. In 2010 Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnel first proposed the idea saying "there's going to be money made." (Warrick) This was before the Deepwater Horizon spill that would take place later that same year that caused opposition to rise up all along the east coast coming from small beachside communities and even larger tourism dominated cities including Charleston, South Carolina. Even after the unfolding of the BP spill there continued to be support for the offshore drilling with the obvious fact that there is clear potential for job creation as well as revenue for many levels of the coastal communities. Political support continues as well, Warrick states "Many of the region's most prominent elected officials continue to support offshore drilling, which industry officials say would bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic revenue". Supports even claim that the fifty-mile buffer suggested by the White House would restrict to much of the "undiscovered recourses" suggesting that the precautions being taken are actually limiting the potential drilling to much and not allowing enough exploration with the opening of the Atlantic oil fields. 

In Coral Daventport's article "Obama's Plan: Allow Drilling in Atlantic, but Limit It in Artic" he quotes Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center saying "Our coastal economies are the backbone of hundreds of towns and cities along the Southern coast, providing thousands of jobs, multibillion-dollar tourism industries, multimillion-dollar fishing industries, and critical local tax revenues." This is true for Charleston in particular according to Abigail Darlington with The Post and Courier was voted the number one tourist destination in the United States and number two in the world by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Five years after the BP oil spill the mayor of Gulf Shores, Alabama Robert Craft reflects on the toll taken on their beaches saying "Five years ago you'd see oil all over our beach and you'd see no people here... Our beaches were ruined" (Elliot). From an economic standpoint a spill in the Atlantic could devastate the tourism reliant economy of Charleston, South Carolina, Craft goes on to explain that after five years Gulf Shores has rebounded economically, but also states that he is unsure of the long term environmental effects the spill will have on the Gulf Shores coastal ecosystems and beaches (Elliot). 

The argument can also be made that the opening of the Atlantic oil fields will simply push back more efficient and eco-friendly energy sources such as wind turbines which supporters of the wind turbine industry actually argue will provide the same if not more jobs and economic benefit than that of the Atlantic oil fields (Warrick). Talking about the potential opening of Atlantic oil fields Hillary Clinton says "The move carries real environmental risks and helps delay a move to renewable energy" (Warrick), this acknowledges the potential environmental risks that could come from another catastrophic spill similar to the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico while also bringing up the fact that the opening of this new field would simply push back the more environmentally friendly alternatives for energy sources. 

In a study done by Quest Offshore the potential economic benefits are estimated from previous studies of the Atlantic oil fields. "By 2035, offshore oil and natural gas development could produce an incremental 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMboe/d), generate nearly 280,000 jobs, contribute up to $23.5 billion per year to the U.S. economy, and generate $51 billion in cumulative government revenue". Later in this journal the economic benefits for individual states are examined, for example, "Each state is also expected to see between three thousand five hundred and 55 thousand jobs created by 2035, and contributions to their economies ranging from $315 million to over $4 billion per year" (Quest Offshore). These large projections suggest huge potential for economic gain through the opening of the Atlantic oil fields off of the eastern coast of the United States, accompanied by the individual states projected gains in both economic revenue as well as job creation the benefits are undeniable and drilling seems as if it is a great option for energy production in the United States. 

After examining all aspects of the Atlantic oil drilling argument the conclusion can be made that allowing oil drilling off the east coast of the United States poses more potential for environmental loss than what benefits could come from an economic perspective. With the impact that the Deepwater Horizon disaster had on the entire Gulf of Mexico it is clear considering the significance of the coastal ecosystem of Charleston, South Carolina the brown pelican population in particular could face an all to familiar challenge of resilience in the case of an oil spill similar to the 2010 BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico that devastated the brown pelican population on the coast of Louisiana. Also taking into account other economic factors that support coastal communities such as fisheries and also the major economic driving factor in Charleston which is their tourism industry that is the backbone of their economy, long-term potential for loss far outweighs the projected gains that would result from the opening of the Atlantic oil drilling fields.

