A change in the weather has sparked fears hundreds more seabirds will wash-up along Britain’s south coast covered in an oily goo in coming days, environmentalists said.
Since Thursday several hundred of Britain’s most beautiful marine birds including guillemots and razorbills have been found dead along the south coast from Cornwall to Sussex covered in an unknown oily substance that has been dumped at sea.
Staff from wildlife organisations the Royal Society for the Protection of Brids, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Dorset Wildlife Trust have carried out a frantic clear-up taking the birds into care and cleaning their feathers.
Emma Rance, marine conservation officer for the Dorset Wildlife Trust, said on Saturday “The north-west offshore wind is now blowing many seabirds out to sea which will limit the rescuers’ ability to recover the affected victims,” she said.
Rance added: “This will also increase the overall number of fatalities.”
If the wind changes direction again it will likely bring ashore the bodies of birds that have died from the cold and exhaustion.
Rescuers said covering the sticky feathers in margarine had proved an effective method of getting rid of the oiley goo.
Peter Venn, manager of the RSPCA West Hatch centre near Taunton, Somerset, said: “We don’t know what this substance is or what it might be doing to the birds, but we can say the margarine does seem to remove it and we are doing all we possibly can to give them the best chance we can of survival.
An update from the Dorset Wildlife Trust on Sunday said 20 more guillemots had been found alive and 20 dead on Chesil Beach in the south of the county while many more guillemots and several razorbills were recovered near Kimmeridge and Swanage further West along the coast.
Rescuers said that until the chemical substance – which is being analysed at an Environment Agency lab in Nottinghamshire- is identified people should avoid coming into contact with the birds and keep pets away from the shoreline.
Wind change could kill many more British seabirds in spill
