This may open up a can of worms but please for those of you interested
please
read and act upon the following information. For those of you
who may not be
interested, please forgive me for posting this. This
info has been edited so
excuse me if some information is missing...contact me
personally if you would
like additional info...
Anna Kopitov
Santa Cruz,
CA
**********************
Notes on Pallas Oil Spill in Germany
-
The areas affected most badly are the islands Foehr and Amrum. Dead
birds
have also been found on the island Sylt and on the shores of the
main land.
We estimate that about 15,000 birds (mostly eider and
scoter ducks, also
some waders) have died due to exposure to the bunker
fuel from the wreck.
Official counts are much lower, they run around
8,000 dead birds. We don´t
believe that the official numbers are
reliable , mainly because they are
based solely on the counts of the
administration of the National Reserve
Park Wadden
Sea.
However, several groups have been involved in killing the
birds and
gathering and getting rid of the cadavers, and some of them are
very
interested in playing down the extent of the disaster so as not to
ruin the
image of one of North Germany´s most important tourist
attractions.
More birds may still be affected as the wreck still
has not been recovered
and several hundred tons of bunker fuel are still
in the tanks. The vessel
is grounded and there is a crack in the hull. If
a storm mounts before all
of the fuel is recovered, the ship will most
likely be torn apart, resulting
in another major
spill.
What worries us even more are the 150 tons of diesel fuel
that may yet spill
from the Pallas, posing an immense threat to the
habitat of many waders.
2. Official
politics
The government of the state Schlewsig-Holstein, the
administration of the
National Reserve Park Wadden Sea and the most
influential environment groups
in the region, the "Schutzstation
Wattenmeer" ("Wildlife Care Station Wadden
Sea") and the
WWF still recommend to kill each and every oiled animal. Dr.
Roesner,
Director of the WWF Wadden Sea Project publicly denies that
any
statistics on the survival rates of washed and rehabilitated birds
exist and
denounces any attempt to save an oiled bird as a cruel
prolongation of its
sufferings.
The usual way of killing
an oiled bird in Germany is to either club it to
death or to take it by
the neck and fling it back and forth until the spine
breaks. This is a
traditional way of killing birds in Northern Germany
called
"ringeln". Our teams are the only ones that kill birds that have
no
chance of survival with injections. According to the
"Schutzstation
Wattenmeer" it is not possible to kill a bird
with an injection because in
order to do so you would have to reach the
inner organs by penetrating the
breastbone. They also say that an oil
patch the size of a quarter means
certain death to a bird. Lothar Koch,
director of "Schutzstation
Wattenmeer": "It is an illusion
to think it´s possible to save
the
critters."
National media are reproducing these
opinions, so the public image of our
work is not very
good.
The situation is even more alarming regarding seals. It is
absolutely
illegal in Germany to try to save an oiled seal. Any attempt
to do so can be
punished with six months in jail. Even though there are
very well equipped
oiled wildlife care stations in the Netherlands that
have several years of
experience in saving oiled birds and seals, it is
illegal to transport an
oiled seal over the border. The only legal way to
"treat" it is to shoot it.
What we would like to ask of
you
What we are trying to do now is raise public awareness for
the importance of
preparing for and responding to oil spills endangering
wildlife. Our goal is
to change environmental policy here in Germany,
which has cost the life of
thousands of birds and is continuing to do
so.
For this end I would now like to ask for you support. I
include in this
e-mail the fax numbers and addresses of the German
chancellor, the German
Environment minister, the Prime Minister and the
Environment Minister of
Schleswig-Holstein. You would tremendously aid us
in our efforts if you
would send letters of support to them stating your
concern about the
situation here in Germany and that you recommend a
change towards active
wildlife care and rescue. I also include a draft of
a support letter
including the statements we deem most vital. This is of
course only meant as
a _suggestion_, we leave it up to you to write what
you think is most
adequate.
In any case, please send me a
copy of any letter you write to any of the
mentioned recipients so that
we can keep an overview on how things are
going
along.
Please also pass this request on to as many
colleagues and institutions as
possible.
I´d like to
thank all of you for your ongoing support, for sending us
information and
keeping interested in our efforts by e-mail, phone, fax or
personal
visits. This has been and continues to be very very
encouraging!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Addresses:
The
Environment Minister of the state of Schleswig-Holstein:
Mr.
Rainder Steenblock
Minister fuer Umwelt, Natur und
Forsten
Postfach 6209
24123 Kiel
Germany
Fax: +49
431 / 988-7209
The Prime Minister of
Schleswig-Holstein:
Mrs. Heide
Simonis
Ministerpraesidentin des Landes
Schleswig-Holstein
Duesternbrooker Weg 70
24100
Kiel
Germany
Fax: +49 431 / 988-1960
The
German Federal Environment Minister:
Mr. Juergen
Trittin
Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und
Reaktorsicherheit
Postfach 120629
53048
Bonn
Germany
Fax +49 228 305-3225
The
German Chancellor:
Mr. Gerhard Schroeder
Kanzler der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Bundeskanzleramt
53
Bonn
Germany
e-mail via WWW:
http://www.bundeskanzler.de/mail.html-----------------------------------------------------------
Draft
for letter of support:
Dear Mr... / Mrs....,
we
are deeply concerned about the reports we receive on the "Pallas"
oil
spill in Germany´s Wadden Sea. It is incomprehensible to us
that government
authorities undertake no effort whatsoever to try to save
the wildlife in
this unique nature reserve affected by a man-made
disaster.
That the victims of this disaster are being
systematically killed instead of
providing them with the help that they
need seems utterly scandalous to us.
Oil spills are not the doings of
nature, but of humans, and accordingly it
is unacceptable and cynical to
leave it to nature to cope with them.
It is time that the
considerable advances that have been made in the
treatment of oiled
wildlife are acknowledged by those in charge of wildlife
care in the
German North Sea area. At this very moment, internationally
renowned
experts are working on Foehr and Amrum alongside German volunteers
to
save oiled animals. However, their work and their know-how is
being
blatantly ignored or even impaired, they are excluded from all
crisis
committees and decision-making processes. At the same time,
unexperienced
young men doing community service are encharged with
killing oiled animals
in unacceptably cruel ways.
This
uncaring nature "conservancy" is as shameful as it is
scientifically
unsound, and we urgently ask you to put an end to the
senseless killing.
