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Hi,
This is slightly off-topic but since it is likely
to concern seabirds and cetaceans, you may wish to know about it (see below).
These kinds of events are becoming nearly annual in the Bay of Biscay region.
The most recent worst incident was in Christmas 1999 when the Erika spilled
15,000 tonnes of fuel oil off the Brittany coastline, killing an estimated
120,000 - 300,000 seabirds (interestingly these figures were only available
through the efforts of the long-term bird-banding scheme operated by the British
Trust for Ornithology) and crippling French west-coast tourism when oil came
ashore along most of the Atlantic coast. Ringing recoveries suggested as many as
5% of the breeding Northern Guillemots from NW Scotland had perished - seabirds
often have very limited breeding and wintering ranges.
The Erika spilled one hundred times less oil than
the Amoco Cadiz in 1978, but was estimated to have killed 6 times as many birds.
This demonstrates that quantity and effect are not always linked in oil spills.
We can only hope that weather and sea conditions off Spain serve to disperse the
slick as quickly as possible without bringing it into contact with the
coast.
Cheers,
Simon.
________
Hi all, At 8:10 this morning the BBC received news that the oil
tanker 'Prestige' floating off La Coruna, on the NW tip of Spain has split in
two. This is going to have a devastating effect on the bird life of the
region. Beaches near La Coruna are already covered in oil. The ship is
now due to spill 70,000 tons, twice as much as the Exon Valdez disaster. The
petrol oil involved is difficult to break up and with more storms coming, we
can expect to see serious damage to coastlines. More news to
follow. Dylan To unsubscribe from this group, send an
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