Its brown feathers sticky with oil, the pelican tries to preen in the hot sun as men in white plastic suits lay absorbent pads on the rocky shore of Queen Bess Island off the coast of Louisiana. Two wildlife rescue workers stand on a boat floating on the other side of a dirty yellow boom waiting for the signal to come start filling their cages. They'll have plenty of birds to choose from. "There's one," says Dan Howells, deputy campaign director for Greenpeace USA, as he peers through his binoculars. "There's another one."

Dolphins swim through slick as oiled birds preen on shore. (2010, June 14). BusinessWorld, p. S1/9.