On Wednesday, half a million barrels of fuel oil was spilled into the Mississippi River after a ship and a barge collided.

The U.S Fish and Wildlife team will work alongside The Wildlife Rehab and Education Oiled Wildlife Response team as they retrieve wildlife from the contaminated waters to clean. "We are going to stabilize wildlife, wash the oiled wildlife and then release them back into the wild", says Sharon Schmalz, Executive Director of WR&E.

The Coast Guard said reopening nearly 100 miles of river to ship traffic could take days, and efforts to clean up the oily sheen left by largest oil spill on the river since 2000 could take weeks.

For more information on the life-saving work of WR&E, click here