PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) – Officials say cleanup from the BP oil spill on Mississippi’s barrier islands has been suspended, but monitors are on the beaches scouting the sand for signs of oil and bird nesting sites.
Daniel Brown, superintendent of Gulf Islands National Seashore, tells The Mississippi Press that the monitors are giving the birds their space to go through their courtship and nest selection.
The major cleanup on the islands was suspended on March 1 to allow birds to nest with minimal disturbance from humans.
Brown says the cleanup will begin to pick up in June once officials identify where nesting shorebirds are not.