with the bird-life of the Atlantic seaboard knows, 

 literally tens of thousands of gulls and other 

 feathered swimmers die annually as the result of 

 the oil and tar discharged into the waters of rivers 

 and harbors by industries and into the ocean by 

 oil-burning steamers. In vast floating "lakes" of 

 this refuse, flocks of birds unsuspectingly alight 

 and become covered and weighted so heavily with 

 pitch that they cannot rise from the water. Thus 

 caught, they eventually succumb to fatigue or 

 starvation, or both. 



However, there is another aspect to this matter 

 of polluting the sea. Aside from the commercial 

 waste, carelessness, and inefficiency which it un- 

 questionably indicates, a considerable economic 

 loss is involved. The poisonous nature of the 

 pitchy substance makes it deadly to plankton; it 

 kills off minute floating plants and animals upon 

 which many of our most valuable food-fishes indi- 

 rectly depend. This applies with even greater force 

 to shell-fish, for edible mollusks subsist directly 

 and entirely upon minute floating food. Indeed, 

 the damage is still more far-reaching: valuable 

 migrant food-fishes visiting these shores, upon find- 



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