OIL’S THREAT TO THE BIRD

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 1

OIL’S THREAT TO THE BIRD

A new international conference to investigate means of lessening pollution of the seas by oil discharge from ships is 'being advocated in London owing to the apparent failure of the 1926 conference to relieve the suffering and destruction 1 of sea -birds from oilclogged wings, says the ‘ Christian Science Monitor.’ / Inquiries made by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds of its watchers round the coasts show that the oil conditions in nearly every case are worse than in 1926. Seaside resorts, it is reported, are spoiled fpr bathing, and the effect of oil pollution on both bird and fish life -are regarded as very serious. ; The outcome of the 1926 conference was that of fourteen countries represented the majority were opposed to making’it compulsory on ships to carry oil separators, and even though they favoured the idea of a 50-mile zone.fronii coasts inside of which 'oil’should hot be discharged, they did not vote for compulsion in that either. Lord Ilchester, speaking recently in the House of Lords when- the subject was under discussion, stated that the heavy “ sludge ”' from oil ships when their tanks are cleaned out does not disappear when diluted with sea water. It neither sinks, disintegrates, nor evaporates at first. When later some of it does sink it probably does more damage to fish than on the surface, he contended. Another speaker, Lord Lucan, -'tooted from 'a/ memorandum by Dr W. G. Field, of New York, submitted to the Biological Survey of the United States as follows:—“ My observation convinces me that the oil film is well-nigh . continuous for at least 500 miles out of New York harbour and off Cherbourg, France, and that'a continuous sheet of oil at least 100 miles in diameter exists midway between the French and Newfoundland coasts.” The remedies suggested have already voluntarily been put into force by both the United States and Great Britain, and, as nothing of real value can be achieved unless it is done internationally, those interested say that another conference should be called in view of the increasing seriousness of the situation. Sir Charles Purcell Taylor, an expert on this subject for many years, blames oil companies, who allow-the thick, useless sludge, which needs, the heat of steam to make it flow, to remain in the oil. It is useless and unsaleable, and the cheapest and easiest way .to get rid of it,' he points out, is to blow it out of the empty tanks into the sea.