Oil slick kills birds en masse in Baltic Sea 2 hours, 11 minutes ago Source > http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060201/sc_afp/estoniaenvironment_060201214513
TALLINN (AFP) - Thousands of birds are feared to have died in an oil slick off the northwestern coast of Estonia, where the corpses of 800 have already been found, officials said. "Probably more than 5,000 birds have died. It is tragic. Estonia needs to allocate more resources to avoid catastrophes like this," Environment Minister Villu Reiljan was quoted in Eesti Paevaleht newspaper as saying. The birds were coated in thick oil, which officials said was probably discharged by a tanker as it passed Estonia last week. Any one of around 100 oil tankers could have been behind the slick, the authorities have said, adding that it was highly unlikely the ship responsible for the damage to the environment would be found. An analysis of samples of the slick has shown it is a uniform mix of fuel and oils, indicating it is oil product waste, BNS said. On Wednesday, President Arnold Ruutel visited the scene and urged the authorities to better monitor passing sea traffic and punish the crews of polluting vessels. "Ship traffic in the Baltic Sea is constantly increasing, so Estonia must apply necessary measures to protect the sea," the president said. A long oil slick was first noticed off the coast of the Baltic state on Saturday. Since then, rescuers and volunteers have been collecting oil-coated birds to clean them, and gathering up dead birds to avoid them being eaten by other animals. Many of the birds are out at sea, on weak ice, making the work dangerous and difficult. Ornithologists have said seabirds ranging from mute swans, different duck species, grebes and seagulls have been affected by the slick. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com contact owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mail list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] no flaming arguing or denigration of others allowed contact owner with complaints regarding posting/list or anything else. Thank you. please share/comment/inform and mostly enjoy this list Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quick_vegetarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
