John,
If you want to know about cleaning Australian
beaches ask the people at Phillip Island Nature Park. They've had lots of
practise cleaning the oil off our southern beaches of various sorts over the
last couple of summers! - from sandy to rocky platforms. Messy stuff
!
They've also had plenty of practise cleaning up
Little Penguins, which can be a long term project waiting from the to become
waterproof after the washing with detergent to clean the oil off, provided they
haven't ingested any of the oil which can kill them pretty slowly. This
year they had to clean one of the Hooded Plovers we've been trying to help
protect from dogs, people,etc. with our Hooded Plover Watch. As it was one
of the parents of the only chicks likely to fledge on the affected beach this
summer we were relieved to hear that it was able to be returned to its home
beach within hours. The chicks have survived so far and should fledge in
the next few days - so we Hooded Plover Watchers might get a weekend off next
weekend! Maybe we'll be able to go to the WESBOC outing next
Saturday.
Elizabeth Shaw
Surefppt Explorations
Phillip Island (Victoria - about 2hrs drive se of
Melbourne)
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