TECHNIQUES FOR DISPERSING BIRDS 

 FROM OIL SPILL AREAS 



John G. Ward 1 



INTRODUCTION 



Bird mortality resulting from the discharge or accidental spillage of 

 oil into water has probably occurred since man first began to transport oil 

 by ship (either as fuel or as cargo), and has been documented as early as 

 1917 (Wild 1925, in Vermeer and Vermeer 1974). In some areas (e.g., Baltic 

 Sea), bird mortality resulting from oil spills has apparently been substan- 

 tial for many years (Bergman 1961, Lemmetyinen 1966). It was not until 1967, 

 however, when the Torrey Canyon disaster occurred and an estimated 40,000 to 

 100,000 seabirds died (Bourne 1970) that the problem of oil-induced mortality 

 became widely recognized. During the Torrey Canyon spill, attempts were made 

 to save oil-soaked birds, but because no information was available on the 

 proper methods of cleaning and rehabilitating these birds, most attempts 

 failed. The "state of the art" for cleaning oil-soaked birds has changed 

 considerably since 1967. 



Attention has recently been focused on the concept of deterring birds 

 from oil spill areas, to prevent or reduce encounters with oil by large 

 numbers of birds (Crummet 1973, LGL Limited 1974). The value of this' ap- 

 proach is enhanced by the estimate that only a small percentage of the birds 

 that are oil-soaked are ever captured and brought into cleaning centers; 

 many birds that are oil -soaked at sea never reach shore (Tanis and Morzer 

 Bruyns 1968, Hope-Jones et al . 1970). 



This paper deals with the subject of bird deterrents and is based on a 

 recent literature study, conducted by LGL Limited for PACE (Petroleum Associ- 

 ation for Conservation of the Canadian Environment), on methods for deterring 

 birds from oil spill areas (Koski and Richardson 1976). The report for this 

 study (1) reviews existing knowledge on dispersing and deterring birds from 

 specific areas; (2) gives descriptive, cost, and availability information 

 about commercially available deterrent devices; and (3) contains a discussion 

 of methods and combinations of methods that could be useful as deterrents in 

 various types of areas where oil spills are likely to occur. 



One finding of the review is that surprisingly little concrete informa- 

 tion is available about the effectiveness of various deterrent methods, des- 

 pite the widespread use of deterrent methods at airports, in orchards, and 

 in grain fields. Furthermore, of the deterrent tests and observations that 

 have been reported, very few have been in the aquatic, coastal, and marine 

 areas where oil spills are likely to be especially hazardous to birds. As 

 a result, most deterrent devices have not been adequately tested (if at all) 

 against many of the species that are most susceptible to oil during a spill 

 (e.g., loons, grebes, diving ducks, and alcids), and scanty information on 

 the deployment and effectiveness of devices in any situation makes the choice 



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