Here volunteers - there soldiers

November 8, 2007, San Francisco Bay, California, USA - Tanker hits bridge, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the bay.

November 11, 2007, Black Sea, Russia - Tanker splits in half during storm, spilling 560,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Black Sea. (Nearly 10 times the size of the CA spill).

Two ecological catastrophes within the space of 3 days. In both cases there is suspicion of pilot error. The ship captain in California has a spotty sailing history. In Russia, there is suspicion the captain ignored storm warnings.

Here in California, thousands of volunteers have flocked to the shoreline to clean up tarbells, toxic bubbles of hardened oil that wash ashore. The phone lines to Animal Rescue organizations have been jammed. It takes a trained individual to degrease waterfowl. Unskilled volunteers do laundry, defrost bird food and build temporary cages for the injured birds. There is no way to help the fish.

In Russia, soldiers have been deployed to clean up beaches in areas affected by the spill. It would be interesting to know whether citizens concerned for the welfare of the animals are also volunteering to help clean up animals and the shoreline.