Officials surveying oil damage to Gulf marshes

BARATARIA BAY, La. - As officials approached to survey the damage the Gulf oil spill is causing in coastal marshes, some brown pelicans couldn't fly away Sunday. All they could do was hobble.

Several pelicans were coated in oil on Barataria Bay, their usually brown and white feathers now jet black. Pelican eggs were glazed with rust-colored gunk, and new hatchlings and nests were coated with crude.

It is unclear whether the area can even be cleaned. It is also unknown how much of the Gulf Coast will end up looking the same way as an offshore rig that exploded more than a month ago has spewed untold millions of gallons of oil.

The dire impact of the massive spill was apparent on oil-soaked islands where pelicans nest as several of the birds splashed in the water and preened themselves, apparently trying to clean crude from their feet and wings.

As oil crept farther into the delicate wetlands, BP officials said one of their efforts to slow the leak wasn't working as effectively as before.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the state will begin building sand barriers to protect the coastline. He made his remarks on a boat touring the nesting grounds.

And Venezuela has sent a team of experts to Cuba to help the island prepare in case the oil spill reaches its shores, President Hugo Chávez said. He said he sent a team Saturday headed by Eulogio del Piño, vice president of exploration and production for the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States.

Meanwhile, BP spokesman John Curry told The Associated Press that a mile-long tube inserted into the leaking well siphoned some 57,120 gallons of oil in the past 24 hours, a sharp drop from the 92,400 gallons a day the device was sucking up on Friday.

Three top administration officials are returning to the area to monitor the spill response. Anger with the government and BP, which leased the rig and is responsible for the cleanup, has boiled over. President Barack Obama has named a special independent commission to review what has happened.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CBS' "Face the Nation" yesterday that Justice Department officials have been to the region, but he wouldn't say whether the department has opened a criminal investigation.

BP said it will be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot mud into the blown-out well, yet another delay in the effort to stop the oil. Scientists believe more than 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon.