1,500 Seabirds Wash Up on England’s Beaches

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There's no scarcity of beachcombers on the Southwest coast of England this time of year. Usually, they're on the lookout for jewel-like shards of sea glass washed smooth by the ocean, or beautifully knotted bits of driftwood.

This spring, however, the beach's treasures are obscured by thousands of dead birds. In just the last ten days, over 1,500 dead seabirds glazed in a sticky, clear film have washed ashore in Southwest England

"Sometimes the birds are just so covered in the stuff you have to pry their little emaciated bodies off the rocks," said Marc Smith, Marine Warden of Dorset Wildlife Trust. "And then you have dead birds stuck to your gloves."

The culprit? Polyisobutylene, or PIB, a kind of synthetic rubber developed in the 1940s. It is used in the manufacturing of chewing gum, adhesive tape, and sealants.

It is currently perfectly legal for ships to dump between 75 and 350 litres of PIB into the ocean when they wash their tanks or clear ballast water. When PIB hits seawater it turns into a waxy, glue-like slick, floating just beneath the surface.

 

"Bacteria have a hard time breaking this stuff down," said Smith. "So it just floats there. We think it might attract bits of seaweed and other natural ocean debris, which in turn attract fish and then the fish attract the sea birds. They dive right in, their wings essentially get glued to their bodies. They can't move, they can't eat, they freeze or starve to death out at sea and their bodies wash up on the beach."

This is the second time in just a couple of months that massive numbers of dead birds have washed up on the Southwest coast of England. The first time occurred over four days at the beginning of February as the tide littered the beaches with dead birds.

Steve Rowland, Professor of Organic Geochemistry at Plymouth University, has been analyzing the PIB found on the birds and believes from the chemical signature of the gluey wax that both the ongoing bird deaths and those from earlier in the year are from the same slick.

 

Dr. Rowland has been soliciting manufacturers of PIB to send him samples so he can construct a kind of database, like those that exist for crude oil, where the chemical can be traced back to a source. No companies so far have agreed to participate.

"This is the fifth time in ten years that PIB has caused massive bird casualties in Europe," said Smith. "We don't know where the current slick is and even if we did, we don't know enough about the chemical to know how to break it up. So we just have to wait and hope for a big storm to wash it apart and pray that not too many more birds are attracted to this floating death trap."

In the longer term, Wildlife Trust and animal welfare groups throughout the U.K. are soliciting the British government to bring up PIB with the International Maritime Organization so that it can be reclassified as a much more dangerous substance that would make it illegal for boats, which use industrial lubricant oils containing PIB, to dump into the water. Unfortunately, those involved in this process say it will probably take six years before the issue even comes up for a vote.

"In the meantime, we are just training volunteers to help us handle the situation as best we can," said Smith. "We will keep on washing the birds that do survive with margarine and dish detergent, while we wait for governments to act."

Source:

www.takepart.com

http://worldtruth.tv

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