The Red, White, and Green

Photo credit: Lillian Falco/USFWS

He’s the king of boat music, so it should come as no surprise that coastal crooner Jimmy Buffett has donated a specialized boat to help out with wildlife recovery efforts for the BP oil spill.

The Shallow Water Attention Terminal (SWAT) vessel, designed by Dragonfly Boatworks in Vero Beach, FL, may as yet have a name (suggestion: Oilspillville?), but it’s scheduled to begin operations this week in the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Alabama, which has been polluted by some of the thickest oil of the spill to date. Operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge is a crucial habitat for migratory birds and nesting sea turtles.

Thanks to a flat-hull construction, the Buffett boat will be able to navigate the shallow, marshy areas of the refuge; in fact, it’s designed to operate in as little as 8 inches of water (for comparison, that’s about half the depth of a standard size bathtub). The craft also features a canopy to protect workers from the sun, a misting system to provide further cooling, and a table to examine the oil-soaked wildlife. WiFi and video cameras on board will enable remote viewing of the rescue operations.

This isn’t the first time the “Son of a Son of a Sailor” star has reached out on behalf of our sea creature friends: Buffett founded the original Save the Manatee Club in 1981 with then Florida governor (and now head of the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill) Bob Graham.

–Jennifer Grayson

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