Petroleum Industry's Role in Marine Bird Conservation 



by 



Keith G. Hay 



American Petroleum Institute 



2101 L Street NW 

 Washington, D. C. 20037 



Abstract 



Despite improved safety practices, engineering, and navigational skills, marine 

 tanker transportation will not be 100% accident free. The industry seeks to miti- 

 gate wildlife losses through improved technology, research in the rehabilitation 

 of species exposed to oil, and the development of oil spill/wildlife contingency 

 plans. 



Oil spills and marine birds not only consti- 

 tute a deadly mix but have proved to be one of 

 our toughest environmental problems to 

 solve. The rehabilitation of these tragic vic- 

 tims is plagued with controversy, emotion, 

 apathy, and biological unknowns. The costs 

 have been high and the survival rates low. 

 During the last 10 years, a few dedicated 

 people working here and in Europe have re- 

 versed this trend. They have, in addition, 

 taken steps to develop contingency plans and 

 conducted research to reduce seabird mortali- 

 ties from oil spills. I present a brief status re- 

 port on their progress and the melange of 

 problems involved. 



The unfortunate encounter between spilled 

 oil and marine birds is not new. It goes back 

 at least to the turn of the century, when coal- 

 burning steamships and sailing clippers were 

 replaced by oil-fueled vessels. Since then thou- 

 sands of marine birds have succumbed to 

 floating oil, especially during World Wars I 

 and II (Blanks 1942) and in recent spills here 

 and off the coast of Europe (Clark 1969). 



With the current and projected demands for 

 energy in the United States and with ex- 

 panded tanker traffic and accelerated de- 

 velopment of offshore petroleum reserves, the 

 oil-contaminated ("oiled") bird is not going to 

 go away. Periodically, this ugly problem will 

 arise, despite the efforts of the petroleum in- 

 dustry to improve its safety practices, engi- 



neering, and navigational skills. Unfortu- 

 nately, the problem is the product of the in- 

 herent fallibility of man and his imperfect 

 machines. 



We cannot ignore the situation. We must 

 here, as elsewhere, improve our technology 

 and mitigate the impact. 



A study of more than 100 spills that oc- 

 curred throughout the world between 1960 

 and 1971 revealed that about 1 in 5 spills 

 (20%) involved 50 or more birds (Ottway 

 1971). Nearshore spills have a far greater ef- 

 fect on waterfowl than do spills occurring 

 several miles or more offshore. 



In the 1967 Torrey Canyon tanker spill, 

 some 8,000 oiled birds were rescued. About 

 6,000 were picked up alive in England and 

 about 2,000 in France, at a cost estimated at 

 $160,000 (Clark 1969; Bourne 1970). Less 

 than 5% of those treated by British authori- 

 ties survived for release some months later. 

 The survival rate of those rescued in France is 

 unknown. 



In 1969 the Santa Barbara spill resulted in 

 the treatment of 1,575 marine birds, of which 

 169 were eventually released. Many of those 

 released were found dead within a short time 

 (Smail 1971). 



In 1970 the tanker Delian Apollon was re- 

 sponsible for a spill in Tampa Bay, Florida. 

 Thousands of seabirds were lost. No exact 

 count was taken, but hundreds of birds were 



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