This article is from page 2 of the 2008-02-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
has learned.
This revelation comes following the discovery of a 6 mile wide spill- age, located some 60 miles of Loop Head on Sunday morning.
The spill, which was discovered by a Norwegian pollution control satel- lite, is believed to comprise of diesel and is moving slowly northwards.
“It has been flagged at EU level that Ireland doesn’t have an oil pollution response strategy, and we need one.
This is a relatively small oil spill but if there was a big one we have no of- ficial plan for what to do,” said Simon Berrow, Project Manager of Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation.
“To be honest, there is no govern- ment policy to do with how to deal with oil spills. JI think the Wildlife Service are responsible for it but they don’t really have a policy for how to deal with the oiled birds because they say it is a welfare issue and not a conservation issue.”
While the origin of the oil slick re- main a mystery, authorities are hope- ful that it will break up naturally. It has however, claimed it’s first victims
with some 20 birds discovered dead in and around the Doolin yesterday.
The birds were discovered with ex- tensive o1]1 damage and it is believed that they came in contact with the slick while out to sea and made their way to land where they died.
“The local fishermen have been reporting seeing a number of oiled up birds either dead or severely in- jured. They were mostly guillemots but there were also some cormorants and gulls,” said Doolin based bird- watcher Jamie Storer.
‘There is no sign of oil on shore just yet so I would assume that the birds have come in contact with the
oil out to see.
“Once a bird gets oil on them there is a very low success rate. Usually by the time they are found are too far gone to be rescued. Cleaning bird is a very labour intensive thing and once they are cleaned there is still only a very small chance that they will sur- vive.
“Our concern here isn’t really for 20 or 30 birds, it’s a very small amount compared to the total population in the area. The real concern is for the slick that is out there and what might happen if it comes onshore. Nobody really seems to know what the pro- cedure is.”