Newfoundland oil spill a major concern for wildlife, says seabird biologist

A marine bird expert says wildlife is at risk after a cargo ship spilled roughly 30,000 litres of an oil-water mixtureinto the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland's south coast on Thursday.

Bill Montevecchi,a professor of psychology, biology and ocean sciences at Memorial University told CBCNewson Monday the spill is a horrific thing to see, and could affect a multitude of bird species that live in the region.

"The birds most vulnerable to oil are the murres. Some of those murres are big-billed murres they come from the Arctic common murres that breed here in Newfoundland, [and] there'seiders ducks all along the coast," Montevecchi said.

"There's just lots of them around there now, and we're well aware of that. They're the ones that are at risk."

Montevecchitook to social media to ask for the public's help, specifically hunters and lighthouse keepers, in reporting any sightings of oiled birds over the next few days.

On Thursday the Canadian Coast Guard reported thatthe MV Alaskaborg owned by Dutch company Royal Wagenborgaccidentally discharged about 30,000 litres of an oil-water mixture over12 hours and175 nautical miles after theship's fuel tank was punctured during heavy sea conditions. The 30,000 litres of fuelleaked into the ship's bilge and the oil-water mixture was then pumped overboard.

At the time, the MV Alaskaborg was ordered to stop inits position, roughly100 nautical miles south of Cape Race. The vessel is now berthed in St. John's.

Royal Wagenborgsaid it's working Canadian authorities to mitigate the environmental impacts of the incident.No injuries were reportedand the source of the leak wasstopped as of Friday. The company said it'susingtwo vessels with pollution response equipment and land-based teams to conduct shoreline assessments in the area.

On Monday, Larry Crann, deputy superintendent of the coast guard's environmental response, told CBC News that coast guard vessels continue to work in the area along with helicopters used for surveillance flights.

The CCGS Ann Harvey and CCGS Jackmanare involved in the effort, but Crann says workers haven't found anything to indicate further water or coastline pollution.

"The flight didn't show any signs of pollutants on the surface of the water, indicating that what we're seeing is that the pollution is dispersing and evaporating," Crann said.

Crann said Monday's flights were cancelled due to weather, but said crews will continue to work in the area for the time being.

Few birds, so far

Montevecchi said the good news, for now, is that not many oiled birds are showing up, but there have been some found over a large geographical area.

"The only oiled birds that we've heard from is from hunters, and that's really key because we want to focus on the hunters," said Montevecchi.

"There hasn't been that many birds, but it has been spread across the south coast of the island."

Crann said the Coast Guard, along with Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service, have gathered six oiled bird samples, many of which have come from huntersinFortune Bay on the Burin Peninsula, Placentia Bay and on Sunday, even further west, as one was found in Burgeo.

One of the birds was reported by Roy Murphy, a fisherman and hunter in Long Harbour. He was hunting turrthe day after the spill, and came across an oily bird that seemed to be very sick.

He hopes efforts to clean the water can be done as quickly as possible, as the oil presents challenges for all the wildlife in the area.

"The bald eagles will eat the turrs full of oilThen you got the trapping animals, the sea otters and minx and foxes and lynx and the coyotes," Murphy told CBCNews onMonday."If those birds go ashore on the beach they're going to be eaten by those. It's like one big poisoning system."

Murphy also has fears the spill will affect the area's herring population, which uses the area as a breeding ground.

"You get balls of crude going down into biomass of crab or cod or whatever it is, they're going to boot her, buddy. They're not going to stay there," he said.

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