September
16, 2002
Oiled
seabirds washing up at Newfoundland’s Cape
St. Mary’s Important Bird Area
Cape
St. Mary’s Important Bird Area is experiencing
the effects of what is believed to be one of the
largest oil spills to occur off the coast of Newfoundland.
Over the past few days, 40 northern gannets have
washed up on the shores of this world-renowned bird
sanctuary.
Tens
of thousands of young gannets from Cape St. Mary’s
IBA are heading south and could be seriously affected
by the slick, says Bill Montevecchi, biologist and
Canadian Nature Federation Board member from St.
John’s, NF. “The possibilities for causing
a lot of death to innocent animals is huge,”
he says, adding that fines for shipping companies
haven’t been high enough to dissuade them from
dumping. “It’s actually cheaper for them
to pollute and try to get away with it than it is
for them to not act illegally.”
The
Panamanian-owned bulk carrier Tecum Sea is
being held at Conception Bay as an investigation
into the oil spill continues. Six pollution charges
under the federal Fisheries Act, the Migratory Bird
Conservation Act, and the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act, and two charges under the Shipping
Act have been laid against the ship’s captain,
Celeso Ruedas, his chief engineer, the ship’s
owner, Sea Quality SA of Panama, and its operator,
Elmira Shipping and Trading of Athens.
These
charges were made possible thanks to a new Canadian
project that uses a satellite—Radarsat—to
provide images of the Earth’s surface. These
images can help identify suspicious activity in
vast areas not easily monitored by aircraft. The
project was only into its second week when this
oil slick was discovered.
Annually,
more than 300,000 birds die from pollution discharges
by ships off the east coast of Canada.
| Canada’s
Important Bird Area’s Program is a partnership
between the Canadian Nature Federation and Bird
Studies Canada. For more information click
here. |
