336 



the Interior. 1970).^ No surveys were made to assess the mortality and only 29 

 oil-killed birds were identified to species. Alcids, seaducks, gulls and kitti wakes 

 were known to be killed ; other species were suspected to have been involved by 

 virtue of their presence within the polluted area. James G. King (Personal com- 

 munication to Regional Director, BSFW, Portland, Oregon, from J. G. King, 

 1970) believed that the kill was perhaps 10 times the announce<l 10,000 birds, 

 because of his observations on the duration of the pollution and on the fact that 

 oil was also found at the lower end of the Kenai Peninsula and on Montague 

 Island immediately following the reported kills at Kodiak. This es.sentially 

 doubled the 1,000 miles of shoreline originally believed to have been contaminated 

 and thereby presumably doubled the estimate of birds killed. The exact source 

 and volume of oil involved are not known. 



On October 5, 1968, the day following reports of waterfowl in trouble near 

 Homer, Alaska, aerial surveys along both shores of Cook Inlet between Anchorage 

 and Homer found many dead or dying guillemots and murres and between 250 

 and 350 ducks that were covered with oil (Anonymous, 1968). Sources and volume 

 of oil involved are not known. 



On seven days between November 22 and December 8, 1967, the Environmental 

 Protection Administration (no date) logged that oil pollution, presumably from 

 oil ballast, killed ducks within Cook Inlet, Alaska. An estimated 1,800 to 2,000 

 seaducks and other waterbirds were killed (Evans, 1969). Volume and exact 

 source of oil are not known. 



The West Coast of the United States has had a number of recorded bird kills 

 from oil spills. On January 18, 1971, two tankers collided in San Francisco Bay 

 and lost 840,000 gallons of bunker oil, which killed many thousands of birds 

 (Lassen, 1971). Included in the 4,557 birds identified at receiving stations were: 

 western grebe 55.7 percent, other grebes 2.5 percent, scoters 22.5 percent, other 

 ducks 2.8 percent, common murres 9.8 percent, loons, 4.1 percent, and less 

 than 1 percent each for cormorants, gulls, American coots and miscellaneous 

 species (Wallace, 1971). 



On September 6. 1956, the freighter "Seagate" lost an unknown amount of 

 bunker fuel after running aground near Point Grenvil'e off the Washington coast. 

 A week later, searches for oil-killed birds along four stretches of beach, all but 

 one a mile or more in length, found an average of 132 white-winged scoters and 

 56 common murres per mile of beach, with lesser numbers of red-necked grebes, 

 common loons, pelagic cormorants and one each pigeon, guillemot, marbled 

 niurrelet, ani surf .scoter (Richardson, 1956). Although the kill was believed to 

 have been more severe to the north rather than to the south of the accident site 

 (Richardson. 1956), LaFave (1957), two weeks after the spill, reported finding 

 36 white-winged scoters, 21 surf scoters, and 70 murres. dead and presumably 

 killed by oil, along a measured mile of beach in Grays Harbor, nearly 25 miles 

 to the south. 



In 1937 an unknown volume of oil from a tanker in San Francisco Bay con- 

 taminated 55 miles of shoreline and killed more than 10.000 birds, over 60 percent 

 of which were murres with many western grebes and white-winged scoters also 

 perishing (Aldrich, 1938; Moffitt and Orr, 1938). 



The eastern coast of North America a'so has numerous examples of oil spills 

 and resulting bird losses. From February to April 1970 there were an estimated six 

 oil slicks from four sources drifting off the coasts of southern Newfoundland and 

 eastern Nova Scotia. The majority of this oil came from the wrecked tanker 

 "Arrow" and the 'enking oil bnrge "Irving Whale" and kil'ed at least 12.800 

 birds, mostly alcids and eider ducks, before drifting out to sea (Brown. 1970). 



According to Tuck (1960) oil pollution is the greatest cause of mortality to 

 thick-bil'ed murres and common murres wintering off Newfoundland where many 

 great circle routes of ocean-going vessels converge. Winds and currents bring 

 dumped and lost oil shorewards causing lieavy losses of murres. eider ducks and 

 other .seabirds. Although losses occur throughout the year, they are greatest in 

 winter when eider ducks concentrate inshore and murres offshore. 



Dennis (1959), as part of an oil pollution survey, records a lo.ss of 7.500 birds, 

 80 percent of which were eiders, on the shore of Nantucket in 1956. 



Burnett and Snyder (1954) observed a decline in the wintering impulation of 

 common eiders off the Massachusetts coast from 500.000 in 1952 to 150,000 in 1953 



1 Tlip mortality should not bo coiifusod with ono on Bristol Bay diirinj; .\pril. 1070. which 

 inyolved nt loiist SO.OOO murres. Thoiip:Ii not clearly understood, that mortality was perhaps 

 attributable to the combined effects of a severe storm upon birds wealvcned b.y the winter 

 period (J. C. Bartonek, personal observation, 1970). 



