The cleanup of fuel on the banks of the St-Lawrence Seaway has been completed, according to the company that owns the M/V Richelieu, the vessel that ran aground July 12th.
Fortunately, cleanup has also been completed on the wildlife affected by the spill.
In particular five ducks that were released back into the wild in Rigaud on Thursday...with a mostly clean bill of health.
"I believe there were 12 animals that came in from the oil spill and these are the five that have made it through," says Lynn Miller of Le Nichoir bird rehabilitation centre.
The birds' oil-soaked bodies were cleaned by the Université de Montréal's veterinary clinic in Ste-Hyacinthe.
Miller describes that process as a stressful one for the birds.
"In the early days, they're quiet. It's often because they're feeling quite sick," she says. "They've been ingesting oil, trying to preen it off their feathers."
On the day of their release, the story appears to have a happy ending, with the birds in seemingly great shape, ready to be released.
But even as the ducks are set free, Miller says these animals may very well suffer permanent damage.
"Oil doesn't just go through," she says. "It gets into the bloodstream, passes through the blood-brain barrier, and hits the liver."
As the birds fly off into the wild, Miller thinks of their next challenge: migration south.
She hopes that when fall pushes them to warmer climates, they do not end up settling in areas of the Gulf of Mexico affected by BP's damaged Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Miller hopes the ducks she helped nurse back to health stop a little further north, avoiding contact with more oil, and completing their healing.
