During a large oil spill, it is very difficult to obtain the proper 

 facilities, manpower, and knowledge to cope with the problems of removing 

 oil from birds. To be completely effective, the rehabilitation process must 

 lack any toxic effects and must immediately restore the waterproofing and 

 insulating qualities of the plumage, reduce stress, and allow for the imme- 

 diate release of the birds to the wild. After many years of research on 

 cleaning agents, it has been found that none of those now on the market meet 

 these criteria, and that it will be very difficult to develop a cleaning 

 process that can be applied successfully to all species. A review of reha- 

 bilitation efforts of oil-covered birds after large-scale spills indicates 

 a very low level of survival. Whether the surviving birds have become a viable 

 portion of the overall population is not known. 



The next logical question is whether to discontinue rehabilitation efforts 

 for oil-covered birds. The answer at this time has to be no. Public sentiment 

 and interest demand that we accept responsibility when man, through his activi- 

 ties, brings harm to any group of living things. There is still a need for 

 rehabilitation centers after an oil spill, where birds can be brought and 

 given the best care possible, with the objective of saving as many as possible. 

 It is also necessary that research be undertaken to study means of improving 

 present cleaning and after-care techniques. In the case of endangered bird 

 species, every effort must be made to save as many individuals as possible 

 to insure that the species will not become extinct. 



In the future, a greater effort must be made to divert funds and energies 

 toward gaining a better understanding of the life cycle of various seabirds. 

 More information is needed on breeding, wintering, and feeding of various 

 pelagic species, since present literature on these species is nearly nonexistent, 

 It is equally important to know where various species of seabirds are during 

 different seasons and what their total populations are. Information of this 

 type will enable biologists to pinpoint specific locations of large concen- 

 trations of birds and will allow a better understanding of which populations 

 are in jeopardy. 



The oil industry can use information of this type to plan and plot present 

 and future tanker traffic routes. In order to avoid a large concentration 

 of birds at sea during certain periods, it may be necessary to reroute ships. 

 The investment of time and money in this sort of effort may seem costly, but 

 this type of program should be considered as an insurance policy against the 

 chance that oil will jeopardize a total population of seabirds. The cost 

 to the environment and the immediate dollar cost to the industry of such a 

 disaster could be phenomenal. 



Another consideration for the future is exploration of methods to increase 

 the reproductive potential of various seabirds. Many species, such as auks, 

 petrels, guillemots, and shearwaters, have a very low reproductive potential; 

 they often lay just one egg per year. In many breeding colonies, up to 60 per- 

 cent of all eggs are lost, mainly because they roll off nesting ledges. It 

 has also been observed that sometimes as many as 40 percent of the young fall 

 off these ledges and die. With such mortality figures in mind, one might 

 ask how these species survive at all in the wild. The answer is that, because 

 of their geographic isolation from man and from most predators, and the rela- 

 tively long life span of the adult birds, only a low level of annual replace- 

 ment is necessary to maintain the overall population level. This type of 

 population dynamics is prevalent among many species of seabirds, particularly 

 among those breeding in the northern hemisphere, from New England to the Arctic. 



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